The Yachting Association of Sri Lanka has been bestowed to hold the GP14 World Sailing Championships 2011 which is due to be held from February 19 to 25. This was revealed by Joseph Kenny, President of the Yachting Association at a press briefing held at the National Olympic Council auditorium in Colombo on Thursday.
He further stated that this will be the first time that Sri Lanka will be a hosting an international sailing event of this nature. He added that we are also proud that we have been given the opportunity to conduct this event which is been held for the first time outside Europe and also in the Asian region.
The Yachting Association is expecting the participation of the world’s top 15 sailors which includes the current world champions Ian Dobson and Andy Cliff from the UK.
Dobson is part of the UK Olympics sailing academy who has confirmed his participation. The event held every two years saw Devin Gunawardena winning the Youth Helm trophy at the GP14 World Championship held in Abersoch, Wales in 2008. He was crewed by Jeremy Bolling.
The events will be held over 4-5 nautical miles with just over one hour for each race. India, South Africa, USA, Holland, UK, Norway, Denmark and Belgium have already confirmed their participation.
Many of the competitors have already shipped their boats in containers and will be arriving during the course of next week. The event is organized by the Yachting Association with the assistance of the Ministry of Sport with DHL as the main sponsor. Sri Lanka Telecom is a gold sponsor with silver sponsors for the championship being Metropolitan Ltd, Jetwing Hotels, North Sails Ltd, and Sri Lanka Tourist Promotion Bureau.
The sailing will take place between 10.00 a.m. and 4.00 p.m. and the championship in whole will have eight races. The schedule for the week is as follows.
February 19 – Opening Ceremony. February 20 – Practice Race. February 21 – Race 1 and 2. February 22 – Race 3 and 4. February 23 – Rest day. February 24 – Race 5 and 6. February 25 – Race 7 and 8 followed by closing ceremony.
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