With the ISAF World Sailing Championships kicking off in a couple of days, everyone is getting the final preparations done on their boats. Coaches are arriving with coach boats, sailors are getting their boats measured and event organizers are seen more and more around the venue. There are tons of sailors here, approximately 1300 or so, and everyone had been assigned a space in the Marina here in Cascais. Its really quite impressive to see how so many sailors fit into this one space! It is only in the year before the Olympics that they host such a big event with all of the Olympic Classes in one venue at the same time.
The last few days I've been training and its been absolutely beautiful here. Nice strong breeze, fun waves and beautiful sunshine! I've been training a bit with Corinne, my Swiss training partner which has been good as ususal! She is really quite quick in these conditions so its been good to try and pace with her upwind in the strong breeze. Racing for the Lasers and Radials starts on the 4th of July and its going to be different this year! At this world Championship we are going to be changing race course areas each day, which will keep things interesting for everyone. Its been a bit of a challenge to sort out where exactly each race area will be, but we've been making educated guesses and its been incredible to see the difference in conditions between each course. The winds here may be strong, but they are certainly not steady. The wind is constantly up and down in velocity, very shifty and very difficult to predict. Not only this, but the wave patterns and current are completely different on each area as well. Each day is going to prove to be very different!
Today my coach will arrive and it will be nice to catch up with her and sort myself out for the event. I'm not planning on sailing for the next couple days so that I will be all rested up for the event. Today I came down nice and early to get all my stickers on my boat and to get measured in. Next thing on the agenda is to watch the Americas Cup Race at the local sailors spot! Everyday there is a Cup Race on, the local cafe's have their TVs set up to accomodate all the sailors here. Each day at 2pm the world comes to a halt for everyone to watch the Americas Cup! Today will be a big day for it as the Cup could potentially go to Alinghi if they win today!
Just F.Y.I.:
In terms of Olypmic Qualification, this years Championship will qualify 75% of the Olympic berths for the Games. It is then up to each country's Federation to decide what their Olympic Qualifier will be to decide who goes. For Canada, we need to qualify the country for a berth at the Games in 2008. IF, however, one of us finishes in the top 8 here and there is no other Canadian in the top 10, that person will automatically qualify for the Olympics. If this does not happen and we do qualify the country, then next year's worlds will be our Olympic Qualification... ie: first Canadian at the Worlds in 2008 goes to the Olympics.
SO... Wish me luck!!
I'll update you all through the event!
Please follow the results and other event news here: http://www.cascaisworlds2007.com/
