It will be the first time that Northern Ireland has been represented in the race which attracts a global audience of more than 460 million people.

The potential for the 11-12 entry was developed by Derry City Council with the support of Londonderry Port and Ocean Event Management. It will form an integral part of the campaign to market the city’s culture, business and education offerings in a number of the cities on the Clipper 11-12 route. The development of the tourism and international potential for the race and festival has been supported by the Northern Ireland Tourist

Board.

The yacht will be one of ten identical 68-foot ocean racing yachts, each of which is sponsored by a city, region or country to carry their name around the world. Joining the Derry–Londonderry entry will be Uniquely Singapore and the Chinese entry, Qingdao, for whom hosting the Clipper Race was a key step in securing the rights to host the sailing events of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Both sponsors have discovered that the Clipper Race provides a unique platform for delivering global market exposure at local market values.

Derry–Londonderry has a long and illustrious maritime history and a key factor in the city’s participation in the race will be to generate cultural and socially inclusive legacy projects for the future.

STRONG FINISH BY SOPHIE AT THE YOUTH OLYMPICS

Report from Thomas Chaix

The medal race concluded the youth Olympics event on 25th August 2010. The peculiarity of the this medal race is that everyone was still racing instead of the traditional top 10  and the fact it was not discardable added up a little bit of pressure.

Sophie was fired up in the morning and determined to do well having reviewed all 11 races and lessons learnt from them. After a short postponment, the breeze eventually picked up to a lovely 5-7 kts. Sophie was off to a good start in the middle of the line but fell rapidly into the leebow of a boat forcing her to tack onto a header. Off phase for a while she fell right back. Her second half of the beat she remembered the lessons of the initial few days and picked the lifted tack towards the lay line. finding clear air she made her way back up to 17th at the first windward. No gaps had really opened in the fleet and the downwind speed she had shown on previous races was giving a lot of hope for a come back in the spectators stand. She did not disappoint and a superb display of speed and placement climbed her into 5th by the bottom gate. unfortunately some specifics of the Byte CII caught up with her when she did not notice the mainsheet traveller had moved too far to leeward opening her leech way too much making her lose pointing ability. This issue forced her onto shaky decisions and she dropped back to 15th by the second windward. Sophie was not to give up without a fight and she closed the gap on the group ahead to snatch the inside lane before the 3 boats length rounding the gate in 10th making a further two places on the reach getting her positioning and angles perfectly right.

She took 8th on the line at the Youth Olympics medal race to end her event on very positive note!

Skandia Sail for Gold regatta, 9^th-14^th August 2010, Weymouth

(photo supplied by onEdition)

Seven NI sailors competed at the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta as part of the ISAF World Cup circuit.  A variety of conditions during the week saw sailors being tested to the limit.   The regatta marks the end of the World Cup series in Europe before sailors start a long winter training programme in preparation for 2011 when the ISAF World Sailing Championships in Perth, AUS, will mark the first qualification for the 2012 Olympic Games. 

Sail for Gold regatta is an opportunity for nations to test the Olympic sailing venue and gain some valuable experience before pre Olympics and Olympic Games

Results:

Lauren Martel, GBR, 21^st Elliot 6m

Stephen Milne, GBR, 27^th Star Fleet

James Espey, IRL,  4^th Silver Fleet, Laser

Chris Penney, IRL,  29^th Bronze Fleet, Laser

Tiffany Brien, IRL, 4^th Silver Fleet, Laser Radial

Matthew McGovern and Ryan Seaton, IRL 24^th 49er