Countdown to racing at Sail for Gold

Just two days from now racing will get underway for a large, high-calibre team of New Zealand’s Olympic class sailors at Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta in Weymouth, England.

The venue is open, registration is underway and the Opening Ceremony will take place on Sunday evening in Weymouth. Monday 9th is day one of racing for all ten events in which New Zealand is competing, with medals to be decided on Saturday 14th.

A good number of the 32 strong New Zealand team have been at the venue for a pre-regatta training camp staged over the last two weeks, and the team are now all set for competition to get going. Given that racing will take place on Portland Harbour and Weymouth Bay - the same waters that will host the 2012 Olympic Sailing Regatta just two years from now - this is an important regatta for the world’s Olympic class sailors, including the kiwis.

975 athletes from 57 nations are in Weymouth for the six day series which features racing in all the Olympic sailing events as well as the Paralympic classes. New Zealand will be represented in all ten of the Olympic class events.

For fleet racing the regatta will consist of an opening series and a medal race, and for events with a large number of entries the opening series may be divided into a qualifying series and a final series. The top ten finishers in the opening series advance to the medal race which counts for double-points.

For the 24 three woman crews in the match racing event the regatta will consist of an opening series, a knockout series, and a sail-off for boats not advancing to the knockout series.

Daily reports on the New Zealand team performance will be issued during the regatta and you can now follow the NZL Sailing Team via their Facebook page.

Full results, images and more information will be available on the regatta website. 

Schedule of Events
Sunday 1st August - Venue Opens
Friday 6th August - Event Office opens for registration
Sunday 8th August - Briefing for coaches and team leaders & Opening Ceremony 1900
Monday 9th August - Racing day 1
Tuesday 10th August - Racing day 2
Wednesday 11th August - Racing day 3
Thursday 12th August - Racing day 4
Friday 13th August - Racing day 5
Saturday 14th August - Medal Races (no warning signal after 1530)