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Nantucket hosts IOD world championship next week
It is the first IOD world championship to be held here, and the first world championship of any kind since the Flying Dutchman world championships were held off Wauwinet in 1959. Nantucket's fleet of 13 boats will be used for the races that begin next Monday and are scheduled to run through next Friday. "We hope to have four days of racing, with three races a day," event co-chairman Bob Braunohler said. "The target is 12 races, with a minimum of ten." There will be 12 teams competing from all over the world. The Nantucket fleet will be represented by Team Yankee, skippered by Sandy Yellott, and Team Sierra, skippered by Ward Belcher. Crew for Team Yankee is David Poor, Kin Yellott, David Edwards and Roy Weedon. Crew for Team Sierra is Colin Sykes, Bruce Liljegren, Tom Darling and Howe Constable. Other teams are from Long Island Sound, Bermuda, Fishers Island (New York), Marblehead, Northeast Harbor (Maine), Norway and San Francisco. Last year's defending champion is Tony Huston and crew from Long Island Sound, which hosted the 2006 world championships. Each year the world championship rotates among the world's 11 registered fleets. The International One Design was born as a class in 1935 when Cornelius Shields commissioned Norwegian naval architect Bjorn Aas to design a boat to compare with the 6-metre yacht Saga. Shields started a fleet in Long Island in 1936 that by 1937 numbered 25. The IOD has been compared to "a scaled-down version of a majestic J-boat." The world championships coincide with the Nantucket fleet's 10 year anniversary. IODs came to Nantucket after Nantucket Yacht Club members sailed the sleek boats in Bermuda. In 1997, Peter McCausland, Bruce Failing, Curt Ivy and other sailors chose the boat for Nantucket. On Nantucket, IODs are owned by shareholders in a syndicate, wherein each shareholder owns an equal part of the entire fleet. The boats are identical, down to sails and rigging, and crews rotate boats on a weekly basis. The same principles hold true for visiting yachtsmen: competitors do not bring their own boats, but sail in boats of the host fleet. The playing field with IODs is as level as possible. By the year 2000, according to the "History of the Nantucket Yacht Club," IOD builder Chris Hood of C. W. Hood Yachts of Marblehead, noted that the initial Nantucket IOD fleet marked the highest level of production since the class was first established. During the world championships, according to the official race rules, boats will be rotated for each race "according to a draw to be held at the competitors' meeting on the first day." The race courses set out during the summer at the Cord of the Bay and off Dionis Beach will be used during the world championships, with the course determined by the direction of the wind. Each race, according to Braunohler, will be from one-and-a-half to two-hours long, longer than the times of the summer's weekend races. Although the red-striped spinnakers of the Nantucket fleet can be spied from shore, the best viewing, of course, will be up close. Spectators are invited to watch the race from power boats, but to please do so in designated areas. The world championship is hosted by the Nantucket Yacht Club and co-chaired by Braunohler and Burgess Green. I IOD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Schedule of events Ten races are scheduled, of which four must be completed to constitute a series. Sunday, Sept. 9 Registration/NYC Ballroom: 1 p.m.-6 p.m. Competitors' Meeting: 6 p.m. Cocktail reception - NYC 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 10 First warning - practice race 10 a.m.; championship racing to follow Tuesday, Sept. 11 First warning 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12 Spare day, provided that at least five races have been completed. Thurday, Sept. 13 First warning 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 14 First warning 10 a.m. No warning after 3 p.m. Dinner and awards 6 p.m. |
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