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Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship 2007
Championship Moves To Canada ISAF. Image, The ISAF Youth Worlds will head to Canada in 2007:© Peter BENTLEY, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Friday, February 10, 2006 Due to financial constraints on behalf of the Organizing Committee, which would have increased the entry fee for competitors, the San Diego Yacht Club in California, USA withdrew from hosting the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship 2007. It has now been confirmed that the 2007 Championship will stay in North America and take place in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
ISAF invited tenders for the Championship and received a significant amount of interest from outstanding venues around the world. However, with arrangements already in place for the supply of equipment from American based builders and the future venue schedule, the preference was for the Championship to remain in North America. The ISAF Executive Committee confirmed the venue for the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship will be Kingston, Ontario, Canada, 12-21 July 2007. The 2007 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship will be hosted out of Portsmouth Olympic Harbour (POH) in Kingston, Ontario, the venue for the 1976 Olympic Sailing Competition and the annual CORK Regatta, an ISAF Grade 1 event for the Laser and Laser Radial. A Venue With HistoryThe young stars of the future will be sailing on the same waters that Jochen SCHUEMANN (GER) won the first of his three Olympic gold medals and Tornado designer Reg WHITE (GBR) won the first ever Olympic gold medal in the class along with John OSBORN. The Games in 1976 also saw America’s Cup legends John BERTRAND (AUS) and Dennis CONNER (USA) both picked up bronze medals, seven years before they would famously go head to head in Australia II and Liberty. Amongst the other famous names sailing on the Canadian waters were the current President of the International Olympic Committee Jacques ROGGE (BEL) and ISAF Vice-President George ANDREADIS (GRE).
The Host CityKingston, known as the Limestone City, lies at the meeting point of the Rideau Canal and the St. Lawrence River at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, in the state of Ontario, the easternmost of Canada’s central provinces, and the second largest and most populous province in the country. The city itself has a population of 155,000 and is well known for it’s 19th century architecture and the famous Queen’s university. The primary language is English, although Government and numerous local business services are available in French and the city plays host to thriving French, Asian, Greek, Italian and Portuguese communities. The proximity of the city to the Lake gives it a mild climate, with an average summer temperature of 24ƒC. Sailing In KingstonBack in 1969 a group of enthusiastic sailors formed CORK (the name was changed to CORK/Sail Kingston in 2003) in a bid to host international sailing events on their local waters. They knew they had the necessary raw materials, as the area offers up some of the best freshwater sailing in world, with excellent wind and wave conditions and a short distance from shore to racecourses.
For the past 36 years CORK/Sail Kingston has hosted major championships across a range of classes, with the last five years alone seeing World Championships take place in the 29er, J/24 Byte and Laser II classes. The organizers also have a proven history of working with youth events, having established and run a two-day Youth Festival since the mid 1980s. The Youth Festival runs just prior to the CORK SailWeek, now one of the most renowned and most popular regattas for the Olympic and International classes, with up to 1,300 sailors in 880 boats making for a spectacular sight on Lake Ontario. The ConditionsAs the successful history of the venue testifies, sailing out of the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour boasts terrific conditions. A thermal wind rises most afternoons giving ten to twelve knots from the southwest, with water temperature varying between 18-22 degrees and normal air temperature around 25-30 degrees. Records from the nearby Kingston Airport show the wind passing six knots at 1000 hours local time no less than 65 percent of days in July, and from 1200-1600 it holds above six knots for over 85 percent of the days.
The DetailsThe Championship in 2007 is scheduled to take place between 12-21 July, with a total of six races days. The three races course will be a short ten to 15 minute sail from the Habour, with the course lengths adjustable and all three courses within sight of one another. With the Harbour facilities built for the Olympic Sailing Competition, they provide all the facilities required at a modern regatta, and the Championship will be sailed in supplied equipment across all seven events. The Championship will be organized by World Youth Sailing Canada 2007 Ltd., a project of CORK/Sail Kingston Inc., in close cooperation with the Canadian Yachting Association and ISAF. The organizers can be contacted via email at worldyouth@cork.org or at: World Youth Sailing Canada 2007 Ltd. Building On Past SuccessCanada has three times hosted the ISAF Youth Worlds before, once in Toronto in the Olympic year of 1976, in Montreal in 1989 and also in Lunenburg in 2002. A gold medal in the Byte for Jennifer SPALDING (CAN) is the most recent of ten medals won by Canada at the ISAF Youth Worlds. Come 2007 they will be aiming to build upon that past success, but the challenge from other nations is sure to be as strong as ever, with the Portsmouth Olympic Habour set to host another feast of sailing action. For all the latest news from the 2006 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship CLICK HERE.
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