Kiel Week final event of the ISAF Sailing World Cup 2008

In 2008, the sailing sport will get its own world tour - the ISAF Sailing World Cup. This was agreed by the International Sailing Association (ISAF) at the ISAF Midyear Meeting in early May in Paris, France. The ISAF Sailing World Cup is a Grand Prix-style scoring system that comprises the Sail Melbourne (Australia), the Miami Olympic Classes Regatta (USA), the Princess Sofia Trophy (Palma/Spain), the Sémaine Olympique Hyères (France), the Holland Regatta (Medemblik/Netherlands) and the Kieler Woche. Winning the World Cup shall become every sailor's second most important goal after winning the Olympic Games.

No more event collisions
"The World Sailing Association therewith recognizes the immense contribution that the six event organizers have so far made for the national and international sailing sport. And there will be no more event collisions like we have this year with the Worlds in Cascais so soon after Kiel Week," says Kieler Woche race director Jobst Richter, who represented the Kiel Yacht Club at the Paris meeting together with Dierk Thomsen, Dirk Ramhorst and Sven Christensen.
The goal is to establish a new ISAF series that will satisfy both media and marketing needs. "This World Cup series will markedly increase the attractiveness of sailing," Dierk Thomsen, Vice President of Kiel Yacht Club summarizes the meaning of this outstanding chance for the sailing sport.

Starting gun in January 2008
Based on the agreements regarding the sportive aspects, the contractual discussions were mainly concerned with financial and sponsoring agreements. The aim is to find compromises and solutions that balance ISAF self-marketing interests with the options of the six Grade One event organizers, that all have their individual sponsoring packages and obligations to fulfill. ISAF will now proceed to discuss the ideas developed at the Midyear Meeting with the organizers. Henri van der Aat (Holland Regatta) and Dirk Ramhorst (Kieler Woche /KYC) will act as spokesmen for the event organizers.
An agreement will most likely be achieved in the course of this year, so that in January 2008, the first starting gun of the new series may be fired at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Melbourne. "Of course it is a special highlight for Kiel that the final decision of who will win the World Cup will be taken in the series' last regatta at the Kieler Woche 2008 (21 to 29 June)," Richter points out.

Göran Petersson visits Kiel
At the 125th Kieler Woche 2007 (16 to 24 June), the changes to be in effect from 2008 will certainly be a topic of hot discussions in the talks with ISAF President Göran Petersson (Sweden), who will be visiting Kiel from Friday to Monday.

Source: kieler-woche.de

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