Sunday, January 10, 2010

Training begins...

Teams have started training for the Star World Championship in Brazil

The Yacht Club of Rio de Janeiro is gearing up for the 86th Star World Championship, that will start on January 16, 2009, just outside of Guanabara Bay. Many teams have already started training on the race course, close to The Cagarras Island, making final adjustments to their boats, testing equipment and fine-tuning the synergy of the crews.

The expectations for the competition are very high. The official World Championship events kick off on January 12th, starting with general registration of the teams and measuring of the competing boats. This phase will continue until Thursday. On Friday January 15th there will be a training regatta for all participating teams and the official opening ceremony of the competition.

There are six regattas scheduled to take place on January 16, 18, 18, 20, 21 and 22 (January 19 and 23 are reserved in case of any cancellations). The competition requires at least four races to be completed. If more than four races take place, each team’s worst result(s) will be discarded. Until Thursday, all sailors will have to go through mandatory weighing and, depending on the jury, they may be weighed again during the competition.

Race jury – the tournament organizers have announced the names of the event’s jury members and race officials. The president of the jury will be John Doerr, an international arbiter from Britain who has worked at the America’s Cup and served as head of the jury in the last four Olympics. The jury includes American Kirk Brown and Brazilians Ricardo Lobato, Flavio Naveira, Bruno Lício Marques (vice-president) and Christine Völkein.

The race officials are Brazilian arbiters Nelson Ilha (head), Ricardo Navarro and Pedro Paulo Petersen.

The Star World Championship 2010 is sponsored by Banco do Brasil, Transpetro, Governo Federal, Gol Linhas Aéreas, Santa Constanza, Wollner and Secretaria Estadual de Turismo, Esporte e Lazer do Rio de Janeiro. The event is organized by Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro, International Star Class Yacht Racing Association (ISCYRA), Confederação Brasileira de Vela e Motor (CBVM) and Federação de Vela do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FEVERJ).