Department of youth

Thursday 9 July, 2009, 12:30 GMT

By Sophie Luther

Over 280 sailors from 59 countries have descended on Buzios, Brazil for the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships - the 39^th edition of an event which showcases the sailing stars of tomorrow.

With racing starting on Saturday, a number of competitors have been out training on the picturesque bay.

Racing is held across seven classes, with 12 races scheduled for each event. Along with the individual events, the prestigious Volvo Trophy, currently held by Great Britain, will be awarded to the top performing nation at the championship.

"With preparations now complete, we're looking forward to welcoming competitors, coaches and media to Buzios for the first ever championship to be held in South America," said Bruno Marques, chairman of the organizing committee for the event.

"We're expecting excellent sailing conditions. Everything is in place to make this one of the most successful championships ever."

Past winners of Youth Worlds titles have gone on to become some of the biggest names in sailing such as recent Volvo Ocean Race winner Stu Bannatyne (NZ), three-time America's Cup winning skipper Russell Coutts (NZ), triple-Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie (GB) and this year the potential of the competitors lining up looks just as promising.

Local media attention yesterday focussed on the 420 sailor Martine Grael,  daughter of five-time Olympic medallist and 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race winner Torben Grael. You can watch our video of Martine and her crew Kahena Kunze in action on our Facebook fan site.

 Another sailor who has been making the best of the conditions has been Ashley Stoddart, the Laser Radial competitor from Brisbane, Australia. "It's amazing here, when we first arrived it was raining but when the sun comes out and the wind blows it is perfect," she said. "We have been out for three days and it was lovely. It was a little more waves than I thought it would be but they are really fun to ride."

The young Australian has no goal for this event other than to go sailing and learn from the others. "I am not looking at results at the moment, it's really important I try and get my racing going well, so at the moment I am keeping an open mind."

The Australian team are a lively bunch and have already been filming themselves around the event site. Their videos are now showing on Youtube.  

Duncan Trustwell, a British team coach, believes the racing will as tight as ever at this year's event. "Our British sailors are a young group this year with only one competitor, Izzy Hamilton, having competed before. They have been training today and they loved the conditions and the waves and it got up to 22 knots by the time we got in. The water is warm, so it is hard to keep them out of the water," he said.  

Peter Alarie, the US Virgin Island 420 team coach, is also looking forward to the start of the event. "Tyler (Rice), Billy (Gibbons) and I landed this morning and they were worried that conditions would be light but they are very excited, this will be good for them," he said.

"This is the first time for them but they are excellent sailors. We are only a few from USVI but we have a lot of talent."

 www.isafyouthworlds.com