World champs in town for Tornado Asia Pacific Regatta starting today

5th January 2008  

Tornado action at a previous Sail Melbourne

Current world champions Fernando Echavarri/Anton Paz from Spain head a star studded 32 catamaran line-up at the Tornado Asia Pacific Regatta starting on Westernport Bay on the Mornington Peninsula this afternoon at 2.30pm.

Hosted by Somers Yacht Club, some of the top names are Australia’s Olympic silver medallist and multiple world champion Darren Bundock and his Victorian crew Glenn Ashby, with whom Bundock won the 2006 world title.

Second at the 2007 worlds, and the only elite female Tornado sailor globally, Carolijn Brower and her crew Sebastien Godefroid (BEL) are here too; both are multiple Olympians in other classes. The Belgians are joined by world’s third, fifth and seventh placed Mitch Booth/Pim Nieuwenhuis (NED), Leigh McMillan/Will Howden (GBR) and Iordanis Paschalidis/Trigonis Konstantinos (GRE).

Add to the equation two highly ranked German teams; Roland Gaebler/Gunnar Struckmann, bronze medallists from Sydney 2000, and brothers Tino and Niko Mittlemeier, third place getters at the recent Sydney International Regatta.

The ISAF World Ranked No. 7 pair of Oskar Johansson/Kevin Stittle (CAN) and two Russian crews led by the World Ranked No. 9 pair of Andrey Kirilyuk/Valery Ushkov are also competing. It will be a fascinating series.

Twelve other Australian crews are signed up, including Victorians Michael Vandenberg/Ben Carroll and Andrew Griffin/Chris Tucker; a great opportunity of racing against the world’s best at this ISAF Grade 1 Sail Melbourne event.

This is the hottest fleet seen in Australia since the 2000 Games. The event is an important lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Games.

The sailing world is still questioning why the Tornado is to be dumped as an Olympic class. Apart from being the only multihull class in the Games, the fast, exciting and photogenic Tornado is one of only two Olympic classes open to men and women.

Two races per day on windward/leeward courses are scheduled for the series finishes on January 9.

Visitors are welcome to view racing from Somers.

Results can be found elsehwere on this site at the end of racing each day.

Di Pearson