AN all-female team from Saltash Sailing Club will be competing in the J24 World Championships in Seattle.
The team is one of just four all-women’s teams from around the world to compete in the Worlds this October.
The crew who usually sail J24 Red Alert on the Tamar river and will be sailing the J24 Super G based in Seattle, received a personal invitation to sail and is proudly representing women in the sport.
Team Morvoren, the Cornish name for mermaid, is one of three crews from Saltash who will be travelling to Seattle to take part.
The J24 World Championships begins on September 28 until October 5 and bring together the top teams in the J24 class internationally, with each country awarded entries based on their national class association membership numbers.
The races mark the debut for helm and skipper Chloe Nunn at world championship level. She previously competed in the J24 European Championships in Dublin in 2022.
She said: “I'm excited to experience the atmosphere and start line. It’s the largest event I've done, but I enjoy the start line tactics and adrenaline. I know we will learn a lot and hopefully have fun!
“It's been a steep learning curve, both the sailing itself and the team/regatta management, so I'm also looking forward to all of the planning and logistics paying off.
“I’m excited to experience the atmosphere and learn from the best.”
Chloe who started sailing dinghies at 11 years old, only began keelboat sailing and racing in 2022, taking the helm of a J24 for the first time in April this year.
She is joined by an impressive crew: Jo Boxall, a Plymouth-based graphic designer; Jo Coomber, a sailing instructor from Devon; Kelly Greener, a marine environmental scientist living in Plymouth; Dani Middleton, a recent sustainable design graduate from Falmouth University and Ellie Harding, a medic from Plymouth who started sailing with Saltash Sailing Club as a cadet aged 14.
Ellie volunteers at the club as a cadet instructor. She will be foredeck for the racing with her previous experience completing at other J24 World Championships.
The regatta, hosted by the Corinthian Yacht Club of Seattle and the Port of Seattle's Shilshole Bay Marina will see 57 teams from Europe, South America, North America, Australia, and Asia.
Marcus Rogers, President of the US J24 Class Association arranged the team’s boat and accommodation while in Seattle. “I have always been a big supporter of women's crew on J24s. We need more of them! Anything I can do to help those teams, I do,” he stated.
The regatta offers close-quarters, competitive racing with regional, national and international level sailors, along with many professional sailmakers fighting it out for the title of 2024 J24 World Champion. They will compete in 10 races over five days in the beautiful Puget Sound in Washington State; the debut for J24 racing in the Pacific Northwest.
James Mills, commodore Saltash Sailing Club, said: "I am hugely proud of the three teams representing Saltash Sailing Club at the J24 World Championship.
“It takes an enormous amount of commitment, energy and logistics to compete at an overseas world championship and Saltash Sailing Club has three teams travelling.
“I wish all of our sailors the very best of luck and I look forward to following their progress and hearing the stories on their return… Chons Da!"
All of the boats will be equipped with Vakaros tracking equipment so racing can be tracked live here: vakaros.com/pages/j24-worlds, with results of each day posted on the event's website at: www.j24worldsseattle.org/home
Team Morvoren can be followed on Instagram @teammorvoren.