Austrian Olympic Classes Sailing Nationals

Changing in the articles Eligibility & Entry closing date: Boats shown by 25 August 2009 on the list of competitors on the official website of the event „www.sailingnationals.at" are entiteled to start. There will be no additional entry fee be collected.

Because there were no entries for the 49er-Class the Championships are cancellede.

The EC in Laser 4.7-Class takes place like scheduled.

The third day of racing at the Trofeo SAR Princess Sofia MAPFRE in Palma, third event in the ISAF Sailing World Cup, tested the patience of sailors and race officials with low clouds and rain delaying the expected wind. The 49ers finally caught up on their sixth race after three attempts and a one hour wait under the rain. The 49er Race Official, Rafael SERRANO or more well-known as “Lucky” started the race twice but unsatisfied with the conditions, didn’t think twice and cancelled it, waiting for better and fairer conditions to race. The third start for the sixth race for the yellow group was given after 16:00 in light but more constant winds, bringing the two groups up to the same number of races.

The SIBELLO brothers, Pietro SIBELLO and Gianfranco SIBELLO, (ITA) claimed their fourth win today, and remain undefeated since the start of the regatta. The British team of John PINK and Rick PEACOCK moved into second overall after scoring two points in their sixth race sailed on Monday. They are the first of four British teams among the top eight.

After waiting a shore and then on the water under the rain, the other classes came back to shore at 16:00. They are expecting more suitable conditions for Wednesday when the Mistral from the northwest is expected to provide some good sailing with average winds and small chops.

Back to the Yacht Club Sylvia VOGL and Carolina FLATSCHER (AUT), leaders in the Women’s 470 fleet, commented their promising first days in Palma. “We have enjoyed these typical Palma conditions with nice waves and predictable wind directions.” The Austrian duo has been training intensively for the last six years leading to the Olympic Games and Palma has been one of their regular training spot, holding no more secret! “This is the seventh time we come to the Princesa Sofia regatta, we won the event in 2005 so we like very much to come and race here.”

VOGL and FLATSCHER have especially enjoyed the lighter conditions but are well aware that the French team of Ingrid PETITJEAN and Nadège DOUROUX are a real threat. “They are really good in the breeze, but even with light wind they had good results, so if the wind increase in the next days, they will be hard to beat.”

Tomorrow, the classes divided in groups, Laser, RS:X and Men’s 470 and 49er, will sail the final stages in gold and silver fleets. The other classes will continue racing with the whole fleet.

Austrian sailors have made their mark in Olympic sailing in recent years, winning medals in the Tornado, windsurfer and Laser classes but Norbert Sedlacek set a new ocean racing record for landlocked nation when he became the first Austrian to complete a solo non stop round the world passage when he finished the epic sixth edition of the Vendée Globe in 11th place.

After 126 days 5 hrs 31 mins and 56 secs at sea Sedlacek crossed the finish line off Les Sables d’Olonne at 17 hrs 33 min GMT ( local 18h33), the delighted soloist - who started his sailing career on a six metres boat on the shallow waters of Vienna’s Neusiedler See as leisure diversion from his life as a tram driver - was simply ecstatic to finally complete the race among an excited flotilla of well wishers and spectator boats on a perfect sunny Sunday afternoon.

Sedlacek’s sheer pleasure this afternoon is doubled by the fact that this is his second attempt at the race. He had to retire in 2004 after just less than a month of racing, sailing back into Cape Town bitterly disappointed after suffering a mechanical failure with his canting keel system on his aluminium hulled boat which was built in 1996.

Completing the race brings to an end a remarkable chapter in his sailing career. As a teenager Norbert was more into his football and other active sports. He trained formally and worked as a waiter in the Vienna Hilton before taking a job driving trams in the Austrian capital city. It was while in his early 20’s and he was doing this that he took up sailing on the shallow lakes. He read voraciously of the adventures of Tabarly, of Austria’s first circumnavigator Wolfgang Hausner, and many others, regularly missing stops and forgetting to start from the tram terminus because he was so engrossed in his sailing reading.

Sedlacek has been consistent when he has said he intends to go forward and do the next race in a better boat, but at least this time he will return to his marine chandlery and clothing business in Vienna a satisfied skipper, even if it proves his thirst for adventure has been heightened just as much as it has been quenched by his first successful Vendée Globe.

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