Kiwis Take 29ers Worlds Day 1 Honors

The Alamitos Yacht Club in California is hosting the 29er World Championship and after the day one of the Worlds, it is the Kiwis that have taken an early lead.


The Bravo Course race was an entertaining one with variable and shifty winds creating drama and confusion at the starting line. The Alpha Course did not have any problems with the wind and this resulted in most of the stars to begin without any glitches.

The participants at the 17th Annual 49ers W4old Championships were split into 2 groups and each of the groups had to compete in three races. The racing at the Bravo Course had to be stopped for some time at the start due to oscillating winds. 20 teams had to face premature start disqualifications by the start of the final race.

The ABYC Commodore Chuck Clay said that the courses looked quite apart from each other despite being on the same coastline. The sailors on both the courses encountered different sailing conditions, the wind as well as racing. Jerelyn Biehl, the 29er class executive director, is happy that the event has kicked off in testing race conditions.

ENP Motivates Sailors Narrow Performance Gap

The Aon Youth Sailing World Championships that will take place in Torbay is going to have 400 best youth sailors from the world.


Participants from 67 nations have participated in an event and will take part in a race that will go for five days.

Yachting New Zealand Development Manager and Participation Andrew Clouston said “Sailing is not a mainstream sport in many countries across the world.  An event of this large scale is motivating for some and can be daunting from other young sailors who belongs to countries where sailing is not taken as main sport,”

He further added that World Sailing’s Emerging Nations Player program is a great move and it is also a way to ease sailors of young generation. The program helps participants to learn sailing skill and take part in competitions.

The aim of the ENP is to increase the number participation of sailors in Youth World championship, and also to narrow the gap of performance between countries. Countries that do not have sailing as a main sport often see less participants and also the sailors lack the skills in the absence of proper training.