Shanghai Sailing Open to feature some 300 competitors
The 2025 Shanghai Sailing Open will be held at Dishui Lake in Pudong's Lingang area from March 25 to 30, featuring a new discipline and some 300 sailboat racers from home and abroad.
As the city's third self-developed sports competition after the Shanghai Marathon and Shanghai River Regatta, the Sailing Open was launched last year with two disciplines – J80 and ILCA6.
In its second edition, a new discipline of ILCA7 will be added. Each class involves 30 boats for the competitions.
The ILCA7 class sailboat, formerly known as the Laser class, is currently the designated boat type for men's single-person sailing in the Olympic Games. The boat is known for its maneuverability. With one main sail, the boat is light in weight and fast, but requires strong balance and core strength to control.
The Shanghai Sailing Team taking part in this year's competition.
To raise the competition level of the Sailing Open, organizers are inviting 10 elite sailors from overseas to compete in the ILCA6 and ILCA7 classes, including Olympic and national champions from Spain, Portugal, Israel, Italy, Australia, Egypt, Britain and Canada.
Chinese sailor Xu Jingkun, who lost his left arm in a fireworks accident at the age of 12, will also take part in the competition.
In 2015, Xu participated in the solo transatlantic extreme sailing race and became the first one-armed athlete in the world to complete the event.
The inaugural Shanghai Sailing Open was held last year.
The J80 class is open to the public for registration. Each J80 boat is limited to eight people (including team leader and coach). The helmsman must be certified by China Maritime, CYA, RYA, ASA and other institutions.
If the number of qualified teams exceeds the number set for the event, the final participants will be determined by a draw.
Those interested can log on to the event's official website www.shsailingopen.com for registration and more information.
