Veleiros do Sul is hosting again the Soling Worlds

The 2010 Soling World Championship will be held on February 7 to 12 in Porto Alegre, Brazil at Veleiros do Sul. 20 crews from Brazil, Germany, Argentine, United States and UK are participating this time with 60 sailors.

In this edition the run for the title promises a very balanced racing. There will be three world champion skippers in the Guaiba lake race area: Gustavo Warburg (2001/2004), from Argentine, Roman Koch (2005) from Germany and George Nehm (2007) from Brazil. Nine races are scheduled, two daily, starting at 2pm. Timetable could be altered in case of necessity.

VDS currently meets most of the national fleet of the Soling class. In 2007 the Gaucho Club achieved double position in Buenos Aires when became the World Champion with George Nehm, Marcos Pinto Ribeiro and Lúcio Pinto Ribeiro crew and Vice with Cícero Hartmann, Flávio Quevedo and André Renard crew. This is the third time that Brazil hosts the Soling Worlds. The first one was in 1978 in Rio de Janeiro, with Gastão Brun, Vicente Brun and Roberto Martins as the champions. The second time was in 2004 at VDS, in Porto Alegre with the Argentinians Gustavo Warburg, Hernan Celedoni and Maximo Smith in the first place.

The Soling was an Olympic boat from 1972 to 2000. In 1984 in the Los Angeles Olympics, Torben Grael, Daniel Adler and Ronaldo Senft won to Brazil a silver medal. The Soling class also was the pioneer on the Olympics Match Race – racing modality where there is a direct competition between only two boats in the race area. The Match Race Worlds was the most known tournament, Infanta Cristina Trophy that was realized annually from 1995 to 2000 in Spain, with the best Soling crews of the world.

Worlds titles won by Brazil

1978 (Brazil) - Gastão Brun, Vicente Brun and Roberto Martins

1981 (Italy) – Gastão Brun, Vicente Brun and Steven Bakker

2007 (Argentine) - George Nehm, Marcos Pinto Ribeiro and Lucio Pinto Ribeiro

Worlds timetable in Porto Alegre

February 5 and 6 — Measurement

February 7 — Open Race (practising)

February 8 — Races

February 9 — Races

February 10 — Races

February 11 — Races

February 12 — Final Races and Closing Ceremony

By Dulce Pereira/translated