Back in 2006 I wrote an article in Classic Boat called The Future is 100 Years Old. In it I gave a short history of the International Rule since its inception in 1906, the 8-Metre World Championship of that year and the positive developments of the class at that time. Prophetic words it turned out as now, even more than then, the Metre Classes in general and the 8-Metre s in particular are experiencing a veritable renaissance with increasing numbers of old boats being sought out and restored, and the yachts being campaigned ever more seriously and competitively at a growing number of regattas and European and World Championships on both sides of the Atlantic.
After 1936, when the 8-Metre s had their last big moments in the limelight at the Olympic Games in Germany, and losing Olympic status after that, the class became slightly less active with only the Canada’s Cup taking place for the last time in 1954 and the Coppa d’Italia, more or less the European Championship, running from 1909 to 1950. In 1970 the World Cup was reinstituted and from then on, the popularity of the class has grown considerably.
The present 8-Metre Class has a very neat set up whereby the importance but also the variety of the many yachts built to the International Rule since 1906 is recognised. There are World Cups to be won in no less than four different categories, each reflecting a specific era of the development of the Rule (see the article: Growing 8-Metre fleet at Worlds in the December 2022 issue of CB for a full description of the classes). The overall World Cup for which every yacht ever built to the Rule can compete, remains the
