ISAF Sailing World Cup - Qingdao To Challenge Sailors On Opening Day

by Daniel Smith on 14 Oct 2013 The opening race day of ISAF Sailing World Cup Qingdao will welcome the 131 sailors from 24 nations with a warm breeze that could turn cooler as the week progresses.

Racing is scheduled to commence at 14:00 local time with the wind starting from the north and slowly veering to north north east as the day moves forward.

10 knots of breeze will open the proceedings at start time with gusts of up to 15 knots before things get trickier as the day progresses. 18 knots with gusts of up to 22 knots will be on the cards for later on in the day ensuring a challenging start to the regatta.

ISAF Sailing World Cup Qingdao sees a return to action for Olympic hopefuls as they prepare for the first Rio 2016 Olympic qualification regatta, the Santander 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships.

Two races are scheduled for the Laser, Laser Radial and 470 fleets whilst the Men’s and Women’s RS:X will sail three shorter race.

The Men’s and Women’s RS:X fleets will be live tracked on the opening day and can be viewed in both 2D and 3D here.

Malaysia’s Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy is using the regatta to gear up for the South East Asian Games and likes what he sees in Qingdao, 'This is my first time in Qingdao. I expect medium to strong winds. The venue is very good, they have everything, it is a complete venue.'

Trinidad and Tobago’s Andrew Lewis missed out on a spot at Beijing 2008 but qualified for London 2012, his first Olympic Games, but this isn’t his first time in Qingdao having done the pre-Olympic event in 2007, 'I thought it would be nice to come to China and finish my year with the World Championship and then take a rest before I start again in Miami. The incentive of the prize money is something I’ve definitely got my eyes on so there’s something to work on there.

'This is my second time back to this venue and it’s a different time of the year so the weather is going to be completely different with different sailing.'

Pavlos Kontides last sailed in Qingdao at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Sailing Competition and like many of the returning sailors is looking forward to the tests the opening ISAF Sailing World Cup regatta will bring, 'It’s the first World Cup of 2013-14 season and it’s nice to be back here for the first time since the Olympic Games and it will be a good warm up for the Laser World Championship in November.

'What I saw from the forecast the cold front will turn the wind and it will be quite windy with big waves so it might be on the limit. It will be a mixture of conditions and that is nice to have in a competition.'

Joining Kontides in the fleet is training partner Tonci Stipanovic and he enjoys the company of the Croatian, 'It is nice because we train together all the time and one time somebody’s in front and the next time the other guy’s in front so it’s going to be nice to have an official result on a race here and it’s that both of us are near the top so it means we are doing a good job.'