The Nacra 17 European Championship will kick-off in Barelona, Spain today with Olympic silver medallists Darren Bundock (NSW) and Nina Curtis (NSW) representing the Australian Sailing Team.
Hosted at the Barcelona International Sailing Center (BISC) 43 teams from 24 countries will compete in Barcelona in a high-profile fleet, which includes thirteen Olympic medallists and defending European champion and dual Olympic medallist Iker Martinez (ESP).
The mixed-gender, multi-hull catamaran Nacra 17 will be new on the Olympic racing schedule for Rio 2016 with two Australian Sailing Team crews currently competing for selection.
Fifteen years after his Olympic silver medal in Sydney 2000 in the Tornado with John Forbes, dual Olympic medallist Darren Bundock is working towards another Olympic campaign with crew and London 2012 Olympic silver medallist Nina Curtis and is looking forward to the competition in Barcelona:
“We’ve been here for ten days training and put in a lot of work so we’d like to have a good result here. But we’ll just wait and see how we go. We’ve a lot of good competition here so it should be a really good championship. Unfortunately the current World Champions are not here (FRA), but besides that it should be good competition and after ideal training conditions we’re looking forward to the racing,” Darren Bundock said.
Bundock and Curtis arrived in Barcelona following the 2015 Rio International Sailing Regatta. With only one entry per country in Rio, they were training partners for Australian Sailing Team mates and Rio 2016 rivals, Nacra 17 World Championship silver medallists and Rio winners Jason Waterhouse (NSW) and Lisa Darmanin (NSW), who will not compete in Barcelona.
“We have had a good training camp here in Barcelona with a good variety of winds and conditions and some great weather. We are really happy with the improvements we have made after getting some solid training blocks under our belt both here and in Rio,” Nina Curtis said.
“The calibre of fleet here in Barcelona is strong and while this regatta isn't a selection event for us, it is for many of the other nations so we are expecting some great racing. We’ll have five days of racing plus one medal race. All boats are in one large fleet so racing will be tight and exciting,” Nina Curtis added.
The 2015 Nacra European Championship is organized by the Sports Federation Union of Catalonia (UFEC) and the Catalan Sailing Federation, with the support of the Barcelona City Council, the Government of Catalonia, Barcelona Royal Yacht Club (RCNB) and the Royal Maritime Club of Barcelona (RCMB).
The Nacra 17 European Championship officially starts on Monday, September 28th, and will run until Saturday, October 3rd. The first race every day is scheduled to start at 12h00 local time (20:00 AEST).
How to follow
Website: http://www.nacra17barcelona2015.com/
Racing Live: racing can be followed via the Live section of the website,see Race Status, Live Blog and Live Tracking.
– Cora Zillich, AST
