At a reception held in the City of London last night Simon Jacot de Boinod, Director of the City Sailing Championship announced changes for this year’s regatta.

Volvo sponsorship means that the event, now in its fourth year, will be known as the Volvo City Sailing Championships and will now take place in Cowes rather than in the South of France.

Open to competitors from London’s financial community, this event will take place in Cowes over the weekend of 9-10 September and, according to Jacot de Boinod, there should be a huge entry.

Chatting to yachtingworld.com about the prospects of the 2006 event, Jacot de Boinod said: “Over the last three years of running the event in the south of France we’ve built up an amazing fraternity of City sailors. Building on this success we hope that over the next few years we’re going to build it into a big regatta for the City’s financial community as a whole, and we hope that over the next two to three years we’ll anything up to a thousand people taking part.”

The racing format is short, sharp racing – total of five to six races over the weekend – sailed in two categories. The Volvo Championship for semi-professionals will be sailed in Beneteau 40.7 with a total of 10 crew, while The Volvo Challenge, designed for less experienced sailors, will be competed for in Bavaria 37 for a total of eight crew members.

For more details visit: www.citychampionships.com or e-mail: sailing@citychampionshipss.com.