2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships - Santander wraps up in Spain

by Sail Canada on 22 Sep 2014 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships - Santander - The closing ceremonies officially wrapped up the 2014 ISAF World Championships today in Santander Spain. The overall event management was not without its challenges with difficult weather conditions forcing race committees to make some controversial decisions throughout the week. With priority placed on maximizing gold fleet racing, some of the silver fleets fell significantly behind including the Lasers with only five races in the books and Radial silver completing a total of four races to end their event.

Canada secured two country qualification spots for Rio 2016 including the Laser and Laser Radial classes. Lee Parkhill (RCYC) and Isabella Bertold (RVYC) both sailed in gold fleet clinching spots for the red and white nation.

Greg Douglas (RCYC) was also in reach of securing one of the 12 qualification spots in the Finn however the final day of fleet racing was called off thus dissolving any opportunity of achieving that benchmark.

50% of the country berths were allocated at this event with additional opportunities at 2015 class championships and last chances at continental events in 2015 and 2016.

The Canadian team will return home briefly before heading to Florida for their winter season and the next major team qualification event, the Miami World Event Website