America's Cup, Matchracing And Olympic Venues

America's Cup Challengers Simmering, Kiwis Matchracing In France And Weymouth And Olympic Venue Previewed

The Skandia Go For Gold Regatta has got underway in Weymouth, England, with the Qualifying round for the Womens Match Racing having completed its first day.

We have the first reports from the NZL Sailing Team on the match racing event, together with a preview of the event which has attracted over 709 entries.

For this regatta, the last on the ISAF World Sailing Cup circuit, the NZL Sailing Team will have 32 sailors entered in all ten events on the card for the 2012 Olympics. This is one of the biggest teams we can remember, and the maybe the first for New Zealand in which we have competed in all ten Olympic events.
NZL Sailing Team's lineup of talent is very impressive, and certainly the fortunes of the New Zealand's national sailing team will followed with great interest in this benchmark event.

This regatta is the first look at the venue for the 2012 Olympics, while most would expect there to be a reasonable strength of breeze, there are no certainties in sailing, and the venue has failed to deliver in the past.
Weather crystal ball gazing aside the venue looks to be on track for a good Olympics, and without many of the logistics issues that were required at this stage of the cycle for the 2008 Olympics in Qingdao, China.

There is some frustration emerging from the America's Cup Challenger ranks, with newly appointed Team Origin Director, Grant Simmer making his views clear in an interview published in TheDailySail.com. We have a commentary based on the interview in this edition.
In Pornichet, France, two New Zealand Matchracing crews are competing in the ISAF Grade 1 regatta. We have reports from Black Sheep racing and Waka Racing in this edition. Both crews seem to have made the cut for the next round (French never was our strong point), so have a read for yourselves.

We will keep updating this regatta on www.Sail-World.com

The European Championships for the OK Dinghy class have just concluded, several New Zealand sailors were competing in Medmblijk, Holland, and top New Zealand sailor and former World Champion, Greg Wilcox was second overall going into the final day.

ENDS

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