Team Simcenter are go...

By Jane Wade

It’s day one and the Simcenter team sailors are all preparing for their first day of Championship racing. Last night it felt like all of Follonica turned out for the opening ceremony as 400 sailors paraded through the streets led by a marching band. Teams have come from across the World to be part of this event – Japan, China, Australia, almost every European country, the USA and South Africa.

Opening Ceremony1.jpg Opening Ceremony

With a 200 boat fleet it is impossible to fit them all on the start line so the fleet is divided into three groups for day one – blue, red and green. With competitors in each flight, Team Simcenter has a lot to look out for. They will be reseeded tomorrow for another day of qualifying before being split into Gold, Silver and Bronze fleets on Wednesday.

Dinghy park1.jpg Crowded beach – 200 boats in a very small area

In 30+ degrees of heat, keep cool and hydrated is a big challenge. The teams will be taking at least four litres of water each on their boats along with enough food to last the day. Not easy fitting that in to already small cockpits and keeping it dry and away from the very salty Mediterranean.

Sailors provisions minus the four litres of water

We will update this blog with results from day one later tonight. Good luck Team Simcenter!

You can see some of the action from the sailing club webcam. If you are interested to see the rest of the teams’ journey check out the earlier blog posts – the glamour of international yachting and RS Feva World Championships.

The event Facebook page also has live videos.

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Day one – round up

Photos courtesy of Phil at Digital Sailing

200 boats split into three random fleets for the first days racing – c 65 boats in each fleet. This means the competitors need top 20 results in their fleets to be in with a chance of the Gold fleet on Wednesday.

Millie Irish & Tas Green GBR7070 (Yellow Fleet)

Results: 1, 1, BFD (over the line at the start of the race and therefore disqualified from that race)

Millie & Tas lead the Red fleet