OptiWorld Team Racing Championship at Club Náutico San Isidro - Day 1
by Pilar Garcia Hernandez 26 Oct 2014 18:17 AEDT
20-31 October 2014
Thirty-eight countries are competing in the OptiWorld Team Racing Championship. The races on day 1 were very intense. Conditions were challenging as usual. The shallow waters, combined with strong current and 5 knot breeze made it very hard for the sailors.
The boatyard was full of Opti sailors preparing for the Team Racing Worlds; having meetings, sharing tactics, talking with their coaches. There were excited and enthusiastic faces. We were able to talk to the Singapore Team which is the favourite of the championship, "We want to play the game. We love team work. We like working together. For us sailing Optis is healthy, a blessing, fun and integrating. The strangest thing we can find here is the colour of the water. It is very different to where we sail."
Daniel Göttlich from the German Team told us how the race area was, "It's difficult to sail here because of the little waves caused by the shallow depth. We love sailing here in Argentina because of the great Club Náutico San Isidro and the beautiful weather".
The teams looks happy, the Spanish team that qualified for tomorrow shared with us their feeling to stay here, "Coming to this worlds has been something really special. We are very far from Spain but we feel like staying at home."
Tomorrow the qualifying races will continue towards the World Team Title. The countries that passed to the second round are Denmark, Thailand, New Zealand, Argentina, Singapore, Norway, Great Britain, Peru, Brazil, Turkey, Sweden, The Netherlands, Australia, Portugal, Spain. Others that didn't make it through to tomorrow's final races will take the time to visit Buenos Aires.
The weather conditions for tomorrow are Northerly winds of 10-12 knots. Good winds for every Opti sailor and congratulations to everyone who raced today.
www.optiworlds2014.org