The chairman of the championship's technical committee, Ahmad Zailani Bashah, said among the countries taking part were Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, Thailand, Germany and Malaysia.

A new event in the Hobie16 class was the 16-foot yacht handled by two yachtsmen and so far, six yachts had already registered for this event, he told Bernama, here Tuesday.

Ahmad Zailani said the new class was being offered for competition to popularise the event for future races.

The Royal Malaysian Armed Forces had registered three yachts for the race, namely the Navy 1 competing in the Sports class, Zuhrah (Racing class), and Musytari (Sixth class).

The secretary of the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) Yacht Club, Lt Chin In said the yachtsmen were now actively undergoing training at the Lumut RMN Base for the past two weeks. - Bernama