The J80 World Championships have come to our home port of Dartmouth. The competition has attracted 77 teams from nine countries who are battling it out over four days of racing in Start Bay, writes Team Baltic member Ryan Gerrish.

The Dartmouth World Championship has the third largest J80 World Championship fleet in the history of the class and is some 40 percent larger than last time the event was hosted by the UK in 2005.

Team Baltic has been preparing for this event for the last two years by competing in high level J80 competitions including the European Championships in Lake Garda, Italy, in 2010 and in the UK National Championship in 2011, finishing fifth and fourth respectively.

Earlier this year, Team Baltic travelled to La Trinité sur Mer, France, to compete in the Spi Ouest regatta as a warm-up event for this competition and finished 20th of 120 competitors.

The event allowed us to gain extra experience in a large fleets and much-needed training.

Additionally, during May, Baltic Wharf Boatyard, in association with First Class Nautical, organised a series of training weekends for the UK J80 class in Dartmouth.

The training sessions were attended by a number of British teams, including Team Baltic, and we were led by Jim Saltonstall, who provided Olympic-class coaching both on and off the water. Over the weekend of June 9 and 10, the J80 World Championship village was set up on Coronation Park, and you will have seen J80s lining up on the embankment, ready to be craned into the river Dart ahead of the racing which has just finished its second day.

There has been plenty of activity, with boats and sails being weighed and measured to ensure they conform to the class rules, as well as plenty of last minute polishing and preparation.

At the time of writing, we have just attended the championship opening ceremony at the Britannia Royal Naval College.

This was a spectacular occasion where we were lucky enough to see the beating retreat ceremony at sunset.

Team Baltic is an under-25 youth sailing team sponsored by Baltic Wharf Boatyard Totnes.

A full round-up of the event, results and the Team Baltic regatta diary will be included in next week's Dartmouth Chronicle.