The 2017 Blind Sailing WorldChampionship
Sheboygan, Wisconsin – USA
Sheboygan has long been a great supporter of Blind sailing. Sheboygan has an excellent worldwide reputation as a racing venue. Alongside their other busy international events, they ran the very successful Blind Match Racing World Championship in 2014 and again in 2016. The Six days of fleet racing competition will be sailed in a fleet of matched Sonars on Lake Michigan. Teams will comprise of four sailors: A visually impaired helm and main sheet trimmer, with a sighted tactician and Jib trimmer.
Opening Ceremony September 11, competition beginning September 12 and closing ceremony on Sunday, September 17.
Boat entry $1250.
Please find below the notice of race, NOR appendix A and Sight form or click on link below
Sight Classification Form http://www.sailing.org/tools/documents/AppendixA6Visiondiagnosticsform-%5B20685%5D.pdf#search=%22Appendix
Sheboygan Hotels http://visitsheboygan.com/places-to-stay/hotels/
Transportation
– from Milwaukee & Chicago http://goriteway.com/ and https://webstore.indiantrails.com/?d=&a=&t=1&wg=1&dtext=&atext=&dd=&rd=&tfa=1&tfs=0&tfc=0&_ga=1.136825072.1904045076.1461706430
Full Information and Registration Fee on the following:
Regatta website http://www.sailsheboygan.org/2017bfrw/
Teams across the world are planning their final training. Entries will include Duane Farrar B1 skipper winner and current holder of the BSI Colin Spanhake Trophy.
Duane tells us “Game On. With the official release of the Notice of Race, the Wind Whisperers from Boston now know we will for certain be defending our B1 title and the mantle of “World Champions” this September in Sheboygan. And, only two short months remain to train and prepare ourselves. Of course, we have been sailing and training whenever and wherever possible since the end of Winter. Our biggest challenge is geography. We say “Boston” but, really, we are from all around Eastern Massachusetts and have a devil of a time getting all four of us (Duane, Amy, Denis and Andrew) together on the same boat at the same time. So, how have we been preparing? Duane and Denis regularly race on 14-foot, centerboard dinghies on Friday evenings at Community Boating in Boston. Duane, Denis and Andrew have been racing a J24 in Wednesday evening “Beer can” races in Hingham Bay and Boston Harbor and Amy will be joining them in July. In June, Duane and Andrew competed in the Robie Pierce One Design Regatta for Disabled Sailors on Western Long Island Sound in New York. We’ve raced a Thunderbird, another one design craft, on Thursday evenings near Boston. We hope to attend the Canadian Invitational near Toronto in mid-August. Duane helps organize match racing practices, also at Community Boating, on Thursday evenings. In short, we sail anywhere and everywhere our busy lives, careers and families allow, hopefully keeping the sacrifices in these other areas to a minimum.
We look forward to the competition in Sheboygan and know that we will have to be at the top of our game to retain our title. We wouldn’t have it any other way!”
Lucy Hodges B2 skipper member of the GBR squad current holders of the BSI Squadron team cup tells us “Great Britain Blind Sailing Team have been working hard for the last 8 months building strong teams to represent their country at the 2017 Blind Fleet Racing World Championships. The programme has been built to improve both sighted and visually impaired sailors and to encourage new young sailors, this year will see new young faces with in our teams. Great Britain are truly thankful to the team at Sheboygan Yacht Club for supporting this event and making it happen and look forward to defending the Squadron Cup.”