Sailing nationals on Saturday and Sunday

Richard DWIGHT

The rains do appear to have abated and the prospects of bright sunshine prevailing in the days to follow seems good to make conditions near ideal, when the Sri Lanka Sailing Nationals takes place on Saturday November 1 and Sunday November 2 on the Bolgoda Lake at the Ceylon Motor Yacht Club (CMYC).

The two-day sailing nationals is being actively sponsored for the fifth consecutive year by Janashakthi Insurance Co. Ltd. and is being organised and conducted by the Yachting Association of Sri Lanka (YASL) in collaboration with the CMYC.

These introductory details concerning the sailing nationals were made known to the members of the media on Tuesday evening at a briefing held at the '80 Club' by the secretary of YASL, Chandima Goonewardene according to sailing convenor, Lalin Jirasinha of YASL, the sailing Nationals will be organised and conducted on the lines of an international regatta governed by the IYRU rules and in conformity with the local YASL sailing instructions, with accredited Judges and a race committee.

In all there will be around 40 boats in keeping with their categorised class viz; Enterprise, GP 14, Laser and optimist.

The Enterprise and GP 14 will comprise 14 ft. boats with twin sails, they will be sailed by two adults, helm and crew.

The Laser class includes 10 ft. hull, single sail, sailed by one adult. The 'Optimist' class made up of a 6 ft. hull is sailed by kids under 15 years of age, they are sailed single handed with one sail.

The water stretch on Bolgoda for the races will measure up to the standards of an International course. The races on both days Saturday November 1 and Sunday November 2 will commence at 11.00 a.m. and continue in the afternoon. Each class of boats will sail a total of five races of which the best four results will count towards the final score.

The 'Optimist' will sail three races on Saturday morning and two on Sunday morning, while the Lasers, Enterprises and GP 14's will sail two races on Saturday afternoon and three races on Sunday afternoon.

The Head of Marketing, Janashakthi Insurance, Tilan Wiejsekera, before handing over the sponsorship cheque to the president of YASL, Joseph Kenny, said that his company was pleased to support the sport of sailing for the past five years and, will sustain it in the years ahead - merely because he felt that this sport needed assistance to bring it to international levels. It has already borne results in having two youth world champions in Devin Goonewardene and Akshan Jirasinha.

There is much in store for the sport of sailing according to Kenny and Jirasinha in that there will be two important sailing events before the year is out and of course the hosting by Sri Lanka the World's GP 14 sailing championship in Negombo in February 2011.