Overnight breeze settles down for opening day of racing

Yesterday’s blustery sou’west change gusting over 30 knots and chopping up Port Phillip has settled down for day one of racing at the Sailing World Cup Melbourne, the first stop of the 2016 Sailing World Cup series spanning six international cities.

At the St Kilda sailing precinct country flags from the 23 competing nations are fluttering on the famous Pier as the Olympic class athletes rig up for today’s two opening sessions starting at midday and 14:30 local time. Over at Williamstown the Para class sailors are going through the same motions.

Today’s forecast is for a partly cloudy 23 degree day and westerly winds 10 – 15 knots turning southerly 15 – 20 knots in the afternoon then easing. When the huge invited and youth class contingent join the Olympic sailors tomorrow they can expect the same S-SE trend before Friday’s forecast 20-30 knot blow out of the west to sou’west.

Race Officer Ross Wilson briefed his team this morning on the day’s events and talked of delivering world standard regatta practices. Given the extensive race management credentials of he and twin brother Kevin, Race Officer on the Invited class courses, World Sailing Technical Delegate Antonio González de la Madrid and the international jury, race officers and volunteers, a world class regatta is on the cards.

Last night international sailing delegates, Olympic and Paralympic gold medallists, athletes, sponsors and race management officials came together at the St Kilda Baths for the official welcome function of the Rio selection event and Oceanic qualifier bolstered by huge numbers of invited class sailors.

Overnight the governing body of sailing worldwide, formerly known as ISAF, officially announced its rebrand to World Sailing – A Sport for Life with the Sailing World Cup Melbourne the first event under the new banner.

RESULTS / ENTRIES
Results will be available throughout when racing commences on 9 December here – http://www.sailing.org/worldcup/results/index.php
 
LIVE TRACKING
The racing will be available to watch in 2D and 3D via the live tracking. Live tracking will be available when racing commences via – http://www.sailing.org/worldcup/multimedia/tracking.php
 
Live Tracking via the Sailviewer-3D Tablet App will be available for devices with 7″ or greater screens.
Click here to download the iOS Application – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sailviewer-3d/id912801278
Click here to download the Android Application – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stsportservice.sailviewer

COMPETITION STATUS
The Competition Status Screen feeds in straight from the Race Committee boats with the teams inputting data such as race times, course type, the status of each race and the plan moving forward. The competition status screen will be available when racing commences via – http://www.sailing.org/worldcup/multimedia/tracking.php

SOCIAL MEDIA
The hashtag of Sailing World Cup Melbourne is #SWCMelb

Follow the event on World Sailing’s social networks:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ISAFWorldSailing
Instagram – https://instagram.com/isafworldsailing/
Twitter – @ISAFupdates

Follow the event on World Cup Melbourne’s social networks
Facebook – www.facebook.com/ISAFSWCMelbourne
Twitter – www.twitter.com/SWCMelbourne
Instagram – www.instagram.com/isafsailingworldcupmelbourne



Sailing World Cup
The 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 Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The 2016 Sailing World Cup will consist of five regattas for all ten Olympic events and where possible, Formula Kite Racing. Qualification places for the Sailing World Cup final are up for grabs at each event. The final will bring together the top 20 boats in each Olympic event and an Open Kiteboarding event where the World Cup champions will be crowned

2016 Sailing World Cup
Melbourne – 7-13 December 2015
Miami – 23-30 January 2016
Hyères – 25 April – 1 May 2016
Weymouth and Portland – 6-12 June 2016
Qingdao – 12-18 September 2016
2015 Final Abu Dhabi – 24-28 October 2016