Australian Team to defend Blind Match Racing Title
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- Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 22:01:51 -0400
Sail-World.com
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Australian Team to defend Blind Match Racing Title
By David Staley
9:53 PM Sun 28 Oct 2007 GMT
The 2007 International Match Racing Championships for Blind Sailors commences
at Mondello, near Palermo in Sicily, tomorrow. Hosted by Circolo Canottieri
Rogero Di Lauria, the event uses the innovative Homerus system of acoustic
buoys.
Teams from Australia, Israel and Switzerland will compete along with a number
of Italian entries. New Zealand and Spain will be represented for the first
time. This is the 10th Homerus International Championships and the inaugural
event to be conducted in Sicily.
Sailors competing in this event must be IBSA classified B1 or B2 - legally
blind. The championships are sailed in two identical 24 foot Meteor keelboats
by a two person crew with a sighted observer on board. Three 'beeping buoys',
each with a unique signal, set out the course and each boat has its own sound
signal that changes when on port or starboard tack.
Winning helmsman of the 2005 and 2006 championship, Paul Borg (AUS) is unable
to compete, but the Australian entry will be led by Borg's 2006 crew, 21 year
old Kylie Forth from Royal Perth Yacht Club. Her sheet-hand is fellow Perth
sailor, 33 year old Ryan Honschooten. Coach for the Australian Team is
Sailability Western Australia Manager and Paralympic sailor, Rachael Cox.
Forth, who is classified B1 (totally blind) and an above-knee amputee, was
reserve for the Western Australian Sonar team at the IFDS World Championships
in Perth last January, but she has only helmed in a single national match
racing event so far. Honschooten, also B1, has not competed in match racing
before.
The Australians will face some tough competition over the four days of racing,
including a number of very experienced Italian crews and the Israelis who are
very professional campaigners. In just their second year of match racing
competition, the Israeli team of Eitam Izraeli and Nir Levi took the bronze
medal position last year and are serious contenders for the title in 2007.
The first round robin commences on Thursday with racing continuing until Sunday
November 4.
Supporters of the 2007 Australian Blind Match Racing Team include Royal Perth
Yacht Club, Sailability Western Australia, Ronald McDonald House - Perth, St
Brigid's College, The Association for the Blind of Western Australia, The
Fogarty Foundation, Platform Shoes, WesTrac Pty Ltd, Westpac Banking
Corporation and the Australian Blind Sports Federation.
http://www.sail-world.com/australia/Australian-Team-to-defend-Blind-Match-Racing-Title/38672
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