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02 July 2010

A Breezy Welcome To Largs

Largs, Scotland, (Friday, July 02), A full 20-25 knots of south westerly breeze today gave the growing number of international athletes a challenging taste of the upper wind ranges, as well as the chilly Clyde waters as more and more Laser Radial sailors familiarise themselves with the race areas off Largs in preparation for the Laser Radial World Championships which start next week.

The stiff winds were accompanied by welcome sunshine and scudding clouds overhead, showing off the picturesque arena at its best. With more than 120 Women and 120 Men due to compete from nearly 60 different nations and only about 20% of the competitors and coaches arrived in Largs, the Clyde coast seaside town is already buzzing.

“The atmosphere is certainly building up nicely. By Monday we expect the town to be jam packed and for sure there is hardly any accommodation left in Largs and the surrounding area. It looks like this breeze is going to continue for the next few days, so at least there will be plenty of wind for the competitors to get out and see what the race areas are like.” Reported David Kent, Development Officer of the Scottish Sailing Institute at Largs Sailing Club, hosts to the regatta, the first ever current Olympic class world championships to be held in Scotland.

“It is great, even if the water is pretty cold. It is going to be an awesome event on a great race area. We have been on the water now for four days and have seen everything from no wind to 25 knots of wind, so it has been very challenging. It is an awesome venue with plenty of open water which is important to get a fair race track.” Explains Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) the current Laser Radial Olympic champion, “ The scenery is just gorgeous, amazing. We have been out training with the rest of the US squad, a couple of Canadian girls, Mexican and one of the Kiwi girls today, just focussing on getting ourselves used to the conditions and boat speed. Later on in the week we will start to get into bigger group training.”

The Skandia GBR Team women have been training for most of last week and return to Largs on Sunday and Monday after a short break.

The Women’s Olympic class requires the strictest of one-design rules are applied. That means that the women are supplied with a Laser Radial dinghy for the duration of the pre-regatta training period and the event. The Men, for whom the Radial rig Laser is not an Olympic class, have the option of bringing their own boat. Competitors in the Olympic fleets are allowed only to use their own sails.

In total that has required the supply of 160 brand new, fresh-from-the-factory Laser Radial dinghies with a retail value of nearly £800,000. For the past 10 days, and several late nights, the boats have been made ready by representatives of LaserPerformance. Boats are drawn by competitors in a random lottery.

After this event the fleet will be supplemented by 93 more boats which will come from Turkey, where the ISAF Volvo Youth Sailing World Chmpionships take place, for the Men’s Open World Championships and the Laser Masters World Championships which take place in Hayling Island in September. The fleets are shipped between the British events by eight 40 foot curtainside trucks as well as two 40 foot containers of spares and workshops. Forty of these boats will also be used at the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, the pre-Olympic event at Weymouth & Portland in August. The boats go on public sale in October.

The event opens on Thursday 8th July with the official practice races and a traditional Scottish welcoming parade through the streets of Largs.