Santander, Bart's Bash,Trophée Panerai and more

by Dan Ibsen and the Sail-World Team on 25 Sep 2014 Welcome to Sail-World.com's Europe and Africa e-magazine for September 24th, 2014.

’Santander 2014 ISAF World Sailing Champions’ for all the Olympic Classes finished in Santander on Sunday with four medal races in front of thousands of spectators. Santander had a perfect scene for the medal race with the specially built 'La Duna' where the spectators could watch the medal races for all the Olympic Classes. The ISAF Worlds 2014 set records with 1,167 competitors, sailing 856 boats from 81 nations.

During the whole championship there have been an amazing number of people walking through the event area looking at the boat parks and activities among the sailors and teams, and also visited La Duna to watch the races. During weekends La Duna was full every day. Locals who Sail-World talked to, estimated that on the days with the most people, around 50,000 people or even more passed through the events area. The worlds started with around 30,000 people attending the opening ceremony and many also to the closing ceremony. This has never been seen before at the ISAF Worlds, and not many other sailing events experience such a great interest from people in the city and the region.

Ten new World Champions in the Olympic Classes were found, France dominated the ISAF Worlds by winning gold in three classes, Netherland won two gold and Australia, Austria, Brazil, Great Britain and New Zealand each one gold medal.

France also won the IOC Presidents Trophy for the overall best performing nation at the ISAF Worlds 2014.

Looking at the results from the ISAF Worlds 2014 and Rio Test Events 2014, there is a clear picture of five nations dominating the Olympic scene in 2014. France was the best nation in both events, but Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain have also performed very well in both Santander and Rio.

At the ISAF Worlds 2014 the five countries together won 16 of 30 medals, and in Rio they won 24 of 30 medals. At the ISAF Worlds the only countries winning medals outside Europe was: Argentina, Australia, Brazil and New Zealand. It is also remarkable the large sailing nations like GER, CAN and USA have not won medals at any of the events, and going back to 2012 Olympics the picture was the same.

Bart’s Bash, the global sailing race organised by the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation which took place on 21st September, has set the new Guinness World Record for the Largest Sailing Race (24 hours) with sailing activities at 768 different venues with around 3.600 sailing boats in regattas including at least 25 boats. A world-wide celebration of sailing attracting over 18,000 participants of all ages and abilities, taking part in 68 different countries. For many people it was their first time sailing. The boats sailed more than 10.000.000 meters in total.

The event was Bart’s Bash was set up to remember Olympic gold medallist Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson, to inspire the next generation of sailors, to encourage clubs to open their doors and to fundraise in support of the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation’s charitable programmes. Read more about the events and The Guinness World Record by clicking here.

The ‘36th Regates Royales de Cannes - Trophée Panerai’ – Cannes has started and as usual there is an expeptional gathering of sailing yachts present at the event. Many spectators and fans have the chance to admire from just inches away the stunning beauty of the old yachts, their hulls, booms, teak decks and the posters outlining each boat’s history and features.

The classic yachts taking part in the ‘Régates Royales de Cannes – Trophée Panerai’ may be considered the quintessence of complexity. Waterline length, hull length, overall length, maximum beam, mast height, draft, downwind and upwind sail area, sail plan, rig, displacement, build year, etc. Each boat has a number of features that make them a unique piece of craftsmanship.

Read more about this magnificent sailing event at Sail-World.com.

Stay tuned with the latest sailing news, as it happens, on our website www.sail-world.com/europe - Read more this week about – Concern that ISAF proposal will cause chaos in the sport – 2014 J/24 World Championship – Volvo Ocean Race – Dutch Match Cup, a part of the World Tour – 5.5m IC World Championship – and much more.

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Good Sailing.