New Zealand Sailing Team prepare for new format ISAF Regatta
by Jodie Bakewell-White, Yachting New Zealand 21 Apr 2015 08:04 BST
20-26 April 2015
Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie at ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres © Franck Socha / ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres
This important Olympic class regatta, which has a 47 year history, is the third of five events which lead up to the ISAF Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi later this year.
Changes to the format of the ISAF Sailing World Cup (the premier international sailing series for Olympic class sailors) mean that fleets are restricted, by invitation, to only 40 in each of the ten Olympic class events being contested in Hyeres, France.
Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie, New Zealand’s top Womens’ 470 crew arrived in Hyeres a week ago to train and prepare. “We’ve been out on the water in some good breeze today with a few other boats doing some line ups, great fun! Nice to be out again, looking forward to the next few days of training before we get racing next Wednesday.”
“It’s a bit strange, as with this new ISAF World Cup format there are only forty boats in each fleet. So what used to be a fleet of 160 plus Lasers is now 40. Its not as much of a change for us, from a typical fleet of 60 to 40, but it should be nice to be able to race what is essentially the gold fleet for the whole regatta.”
The NZL Sailing Team has 14 separate entries (20 sailors) competing in nine classes.
www.sailing.org/worldcup
swc.ffvoile.com
More about 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup
The ISAF Sailing World Cup is a world-class annual series for Olympic sailing. It is open to the sailing events chosen for the 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition. Its centre piece is the ISAF Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in late October.
The 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup consists of five regattas for all ten Olympic events (and where possible, Formula Kite Racing). Qualification places for the ISAF Sailing World Cup final are up for grabs at each event. The final will bring together the top 20 boats in each Olympic event where the World Cup Champions will be crowned.