2010 Delta Lloyd 470 Class World Championships - Belcher & Page ready

by Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page on 12 Jul 2010 2010 470 Worlds, Belcher & Page ready for racing - It's the eve of this years World Championships (sailing that is, not football). Our preparation has been going very well. Winning the last World Cup event, and the practice racing have been going very well. We have shown some good speed and racing ability. Hope we can hold the form right through the regatta.

We are in the Dutch sea side town of The Hague, called Scheveningen. When we first arrived two weeks ago, the rigging area reminded us of China. It was a construction zone, dirt everywhere, smelled of seaweed and with some days of fog. Not to mention the 2-3 knots of current we get on the North Sea. But this has now been transformed completely in the last week with a new road and foot paths.

Some of the locals are a little unsavoury. There was lots of theft of tool boxes initially. Even one day a father and son (approx 12 years old) threw a trailer on top of a 470. When Mat and I saved the 470, they then turned on us. We showed great control and walked away from the situation. There also has been some 'pirating'. In light wind, 470s who have not had a coach to tow them through the second tier of the break wall, have been attacked by some local kids who have diving off the wall and attempting to swim the boats back ashore. The Finnish team had to be saved by the New Zealand coach and our coach, Victor, when they had 10 people hanging of their boat.

The latest world rankings have been very kind to us. We have now jumped up from fourth to second.

With the Dutch local boys who had held the number 1 spot since the games falling back to fifth.

The Swedes who are current placed second in the World Cup series is now ranked first. So our consistent season has been working well. Just need to get some World Championship medal-wear to top the European summer!

The organisers will be making daily video reports, and there will be live internet streaming of the medal race next Sunday 18 July.

We will post the link information on www.belcherpage2012.com when we have found it.

The event website is www.470worlds2010.com where you can find the daily video.

Thanks for again for all your support.