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'With such an international starting field the World Cup 2005 will be a tremendously exiting event for the sailing interested world,' said Fredrik FELDREICH, CEO, KSSS.

The boats will race on a course right outside Sandhamn and can be followed from spectator boats.

The 6mR class has always been filled with famous designers such as Olin STEPHENS, Ian HOWLETT, Paul ELVSTROM, Johan ANKER, Bjarne AAS and Doug PETERSON. Not to forget the Swedish designers Peter NORLIN, Pelle PETTERSSON and Tore HOLM. The class also has some of the very well known sailors, including Sven SALÉN, John KOSTECKI, Henrik RAMSAY, Briggs CUNNINGHAM and Bruce OWEN.

In the World Cup the races will follow the R-rule, one of the oldest sail racing rules in the world. Among the international sailors in Sandhamn for the World Cup Doug PETERSON and Basil VASILIO will represent the USA, Robert Leigh WOOD the Bahamas and Brian HAISLEY and Beat FURRER Switzerland.

24 of the boats were built after 1963. Racing in the modern class at this year's event is Carl-Gustaf PIEHL (SWE) and his crew on Notorious, who won the last World Cup in St. Tropez, Switzerland in 2003.

That regatta was not decided until the very last race where it came down to a battle between Notorious and the German boat Courage. The Germans are in Sandhamn this year looking to avenge that loss.

'For the first time in many years the classic class with 29 boats will be bigger than the modern class,' says Fredrich DAHLMAN, racing on Fågel Blå, designed by Tore HOLM in 1937 and once owned by SALÉN. 'Wherever I go with Fågel Blå people come up to me and talk about her and how they have seen her race before in races all over the world.'

The completely restored Djinn, designed by Sparkman & Stevens, comes from Finland to participate in the World Cup. She is the sister boat to the most famous and most sucessful 6mR yacht in the world, the American Goose, who won almost every race in the 1930´s and 1940´s.

From Denmark comes Sunray who, although she is completely new, races in the classic class because she is a true copy of an old yacht - the Swedish Sinkadus - designed in 1937 by Arvid LAURIN. Sinkadus was one the most famous Swedish 6 Metre yachts in the 1930´s.

Among the oldest participating boats are the Norwegian yacht Mosquito from 1913 and the Swedish yacht Gulldisken, designed by C. HOLMSTRÖM in 1922. There are three 6 Metre boats with the name May Be, but with different numbers. May Be IV and May Be VI are racing for Finland in the classic class and May Be XIV races in the modern class.

'It´s a great privilege to take part in such a classic and important sailing event as the 6 Metre World Cup,' said Marcus BÄCKLUND, of Neonode - a Swedish mobile phone designer - who is the main sponsor to the race.

In 1995 when KSSS last arranged the 6 Metre World Cup in Sandhamn, Sweden won the World Cup in the modern class and Finland won the classic class. Let the game begin in 2005.