RS100 World Championship at Circolo vela Bellano, Lake Como - Preview
by Martin Wadhams 2 Oct 2013 06:30 PDT
3-6 October 2013
Racing gets underway on Friday in the inaugural RS100 worlds at Lake Como, Italy © RS Sailing
Over forty RS100s from across Europe and as far as Australia are today converging on Circolo vela Bellano, Lake Como in Italy for their first ever World Championship.
The event starts with a training day on Thursday 3rd, providing a valuable opportunity for competitors who have not yet raced against boats from other nations to meet each other and exchange technique info before racing gets underway on Friday 4th.
The fact that this is the first major international RS100 Championship makes it all the more difficult to predict the winners. In the 10.2 fleet the recently crowned UK champion, Colin Smith, must surely be in with a shout – but it is entirely possible that one of the Swedish sailors who have majored on this rig will be in the hunt. And in the 8.4 again picking one of the most consistent Brits, Mark Harrison (who recently admitted sailing four to six days a week in training for this event), as a benchmark I would also expect the widely experienced RS dealer from France, Nico Honor, to be consistent, with one of the top Italians benefitting from more Como experience.
The RS100 Class was granted ISAF status in November last year following its rapid worldwide growth since launch 2010. Sales continue strongly in both the more established sailing countries and also some less obvious nations... For example, the first three boats have just been despatched to an embryonic fleet in Taiwan and we look forward to meeting those sailors at a future World Championship.
The RS500 Class joins the 100s on Lake Como this week for the final round of their European circuit - and this is a fleet that knows how to enjoy their events, so they will certainly add an extra RS dimension over the next few days.
You can follow the results for the RS100 Worlds via www.RS100sailing.org and also find full information about the boat and the international distribution network at www.RSsailing.com