Perth International Regatta
Written by Stephen Park | 04 November 2010
Time- Wed 3rd Nov, 0630hrs GMT.
Current position – 39,000ft directly overhead of Delhi
Destination – Fremantle, Perth via Singapore
Purpose – 2011 World Championship Test Event
I dare say there aren’t many people who wouldn’t be keen to spend a few weeks in Australia in November, and I have to say that I am looking forward to being back in Fremantle.
Skandia Team GBR will have nearly a full complement of Performance Squad sailors in Fremantle by the end of the week. Only the match race girls, Lucy, Annie and Kate and the Star team of Percy & Simpson will not be in attendance – primarily as there is no competition for them at the Worlds Test Event.
It will be good to see everyone back together again, marking a re-focussing point as the team begin their 2011 programmes, and specifically beginning their venue preparation work for the 2011 World Championships, which will be in Freo in December next year.
The 2010 Worlds Test Event begins on the 15th November, and will be a moderately well attended event, with top sailors from around the world also all trying to build their Fremantle venue knowledge.
It is less than ideal that the test event is a month earlier in 2010 than the real thing next December, however I do understand the decision ISAF & the Australian Yachting Federation made to run it early in an attempt to lure sailors into staying in Australia for the Melbourne World Cup and possibly some of the Sail Downunder regattas in Brisbane & Sydney.
Unfortunately I don’t think their plan will work, as there is still no good reason for sailors to have to attend these events and for Europeans, Australia is a pretty expensive place to visit nowadays, not to mention that the logistics are less than simple.
Of course these things are surmountable and there will be a small STGBR attendance in Melbourne, but in my view, until ISAF choose to make the results of the World Cup mean something then sailors will continue to cherry pick the events that they feel directly complement their key aims.
Interestingly, ISAF will have an opportunity to do just this at their Annual Conference in Athens next week. For John Longley, the Event Director, the main aim will be to test processes and plans in preparation for next year’s event, which will be the biggest Olympic Class event in this Olympic Quad, as it is the World Championships for all 10 of the Olympic classes.
For us it will be all about learning the venue, to try to ensure we all know what to expect when we return in 2011 with the aim of winning medals. Learning the sailing waters & local conditions will be most important, however just learning to be comfortable in Fremantle, a venue most of our sailors have not yet visited, will be important too.
I am confident the regatta in 2011 will be fantastic. Not only has John Longley enrolled a great team to run the event, but the venue is excellent, with one of the world’s most famous regular winds, the Fremantle Doctor, giving as close to guaranteed wind as you can get, blue waters on the sea, with the major swell reduced by a line of small islands just offshore.
The key focus will be on what the Aussies are calling “Medal course”, immediately outside the marina that was built specifically to host the 1983 Americas Cup, and bordered on the leeward side by a reclaimed peninsula that will make an excellent viewing platform when racing is taking place.
As I have been off in Loughborough for Monday & Tuesday this week, working with the British Olympic Association and the Team Managers from all the other Olympic Sports, Wendy Maxwell led out the advance team to Fremantle, to ensure that everything was ready for the arrival of the sailors, who have been flying out since the weekend.
Although our training camp doesn’t officially start until next weekend, the sailors will all be conscious to give themselves an easy few days on arrival in Australia to overcome the jet lag and body clock adjustments, before getting stuck into some hard training.
In December 2011 we are expecting a fairly windy regatta with winds primarily in the 15-25kt range most afternoons, courtesy of “The Doctor”, and we therefore hope that we will get some similar conditions during this trip, however as it is a month earlier in the Aussie summer, conditions are less predictable, and we will have to expect anything.
The big advantage of training in Australia, apart for the venue knowledge, is of course the weather. As the conditions in Britain begin to get distinctly cooler, the air temperature in Oz will be 22-30 C, allowing the sailors to get in plenty of long days afloat. I am sure our training camp will be worthwhile and it will be great to get back into some racing. The last regatta, Skandia Sail for Gold seems like so long ago now.
In the meantime I will look forward to getting off the plane and enjoying my first real Aussie flat white in a while.