World Youth Sailors set sail for Istanbul
There will be a record attendance at the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary in Istanbul in July.
A total of 344 sailors, 251 boats from 63 countries are registered to compete in the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships 2010 which will be held between 08-17 July 2010. The event has been held in 23 countries over the past 40 years, but it is the first time Istanbul has hosted the championships. With the highest number of competitors of recent years, the regatta looks set to be a competitive regatta for the best young sailors of the world.
Considered as the one of the most prestigious championships in the sailing calendar, the event is one of the projects of the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture. The Youth Worlds are organized by the Turkish Sailing Federation with the support of GSGM (General Directorate of Youth and Sports), Spor-toto Organization, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and BeyoÄŸlu Municipality.
Racing is held across eight events, which use four classes of dinghy and one windsurfer. World Champions will be identified for each event for both Boy's and Girl's. It will be the first time that the 29er will be used as the Open High Performance Dinghy.
2010 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship Categories
(class, entries, details)
- Laser Radial, 56, One person boy
- Laser Radial, 51, One person girl
- 420, 35, Two person boy
- 420, 28, Two person girl
- RS:X, 31, Windsurf boy
- RS:X, 20, Windsurf girl
- Sirena SL16, 13 Catamaran (mixed team)
- 29er, 17, High performance boat (mixed team)
The Championship base will be Ataköy Marine and there will be three different race courses run simultaneously so the technical commission have been hard at work to organise the necessary logistical preparations.
Details about the schedule
The Opening Ceremony will take place in Haliç Kongre ve Kültür Merkezi (Haliç Congress and Culture Center) on 9 July. Leaving the messages of love, peace and unity, this meaningful ceremony will come true in Istanbul's antique bay Haliç by the pouring of the waters that are brought from each country by the participants.
This Championship will hold a festival of activities with music and entertainment at the event area next to the event village
Throughout the Championship, spectators and supporters will have the opportunity of watching the racing from the big screen at the event site and can also follow the races live with detailed online tracking thanks to the system being installed on the race boats by I MARINE.
This Championship will be the most comprehensive sailing regatta organized in Turkey with a group of over 1250 people coming from abroad, 350 on the water and shore based employees, more than 60 official boats for race mangement, 100 volunteers, and a large media team including members of the press, television production teams and overseas publicity all providing a showcase for the city of Istanbul.
While 'Volvo Ocean Race' is the title sponsor of the Championship for under 19 sailors, the Championship in Istanbul is supported by Opet, Ä° MARÄ°NE, Dati Holding, Ataköy Marina as co- sponsor, Shop & Miles, Garanti Emeklilik as support sponsors and YACHT TÜRKÄ°YE, POWER FM as media sponsors.
Istanbul welcomes the opportunity to showcase the city in organising a successful event and demonstrating the city's ability to host more presitgious major events in the future
