A fleet of Open 60 monohulls will race from London in a 17,000-mile ocean race to Shanghai, starting on March 26, 2006.
The event is the creation of the international yachtsman, Mike Golding, and his long-term business associate Jorgen Philip-Sorensen CBE, who together created Extreme Sailing Ltd to manage the event.
It is the first professional ocean race to China and will form part of the World Championship series of IMOCA (the International Monohull Open Class Association). IMOCA Open 60's are are best known for single-handed events such as the VendC)e Globe.
The China Cup will be a double-handed event allowing the boats to maintain higher performance but with a greater safety factor, according to China-based sports marketing company, S2M Group.
Sponsorship around the event is being sold by UK-based sponsorship consultancy Apace Sports Ltd, part of Apace Media plc.
