Sea Trials for the four boats shortlisted during the World Sailing Re-evaluation procedure for Olympic equipment for the Men’s and Women’s One Person Dinghy Events open in Valencia on Monday.
The sea trials will be based at the Real Club Náutico de Valencia from the 11-15 March when sailors nominated by their Member National Authorities (MNA) will sail and test the four boats.
The British sailors put forward by the RYA (but entirely independent of the RYA) are Sarah McGovern and Ben Childerly, and they will be joined by sailors from Australia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Mexico, Portugal and Spain.
Sarah McGovern is an RS200 sailor and freelance coach with pathway-level Laser Radial women, and Ben Childerley is a youth Laser sailor.
The Laser/Radial selection as the Olympic One Person Dinghy is under threat from the RS Aero, D-Zero and Melges 14.
The Laser combination has been around since 1971 and has been an Olympic class since 1996 for the Laser Standard (men) and 2008 for the Laser Radial (women).
World Sailing received eight compliant bids and the D-Zero, Laser Standard and Laser Radial, Melges 14 and RS Aero were shortlisted as being those who closely mirror the technical criteria for the event – easy to sail, shared hull dinghy monohull with different rig sizes for male, female and youth sailors.
Following the Sea-trial phase, World Sailing’s Council will select the Equipment later in 2019.
Boats to be tested:
D-Zero, presented by Devotti Sailing s.r.o.
Laser Standard and Laser Radial sailboat, presented by ILCA
Melges 14, presented by Melges Boat Works Inc., NELO and Mackay Boats Ltd.
RS Aero, presented by RS Sailing.
If you are not familiar with the three new designs, Take a look at the 3 Olympic Pretenders here
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