After a delayed start on Monday 15, September, 2014, Virgin Islands sailors Chris Brockbank and Alec Anderson finally got underway, sailing a 49er in the Yellow Fleet at the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) World Championships in Santander, Spain. Photo: Provided

Brockbank and Anderson, sailing the 49er class boat, have been traversing Europe in their bid to not only qualify for the Olympics in Rio, 2016, but also to make sure they are as competitive as possible and as the pair commented on the latest stop off in Spain. Photo: Provided

Virgin Islands’ Sailors and Olympic hopefuls, Alec Anderson and Chris Brockbank, had a frustrating start to the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) World Championships in Santander, Spain, today, Monday September 15, 2014, as light or no winds caused the opening day to be suspended. Photo: Provided

It was a frustrating day for the Race Committees who attempted several starts but a combination of wind shifts and a strong current made things exceedingly hard with only the 49ers getting racing away.

Despite light winds it was a glorious day for residents who enjoyed a local bank holiday and were able to pay the championship venue a visit.

A spectator Dune was purpose built for the Santander 2014 ISAF Worlds and will be used for many years to come for rowing and sailing events. Throughout the day thousands of spectators paid the Dune a visit with thousands more expected as the event unfolds.

“The conditions were very light and variable today, but we managed to complete 2 races in yellow fleet! Took a digger in race one with some tough luck, but rallied in race two to take a ninth! Ready to rumble tomorrow,” commented the pair after the truncated first day.

Brockbank and Anderson, vying for Olympic qualification ahead of Rio 2016, were placed 18th out of 40 overall after the first two races, notching a 32nd place finish in race 1 and a 9th place finish in race 2.

The 49er fleet had some really tough qualifying conditions on their first race day. The wind did not co-operate said Irish 49er coach Ian Barker, "It was a maximum of 5 knots out there." With the world's best skiff sailors competing and only 25 boats of the 80 registered making it to gold fleet, it was always going to be a tough test. The races were short and sharp which meant the starts and lane holding were vital.

Only yellow fleet managed to get races in with veterans Nico Delle Karth and Niko Resch (AUT) taking the overnight lead after two fifth place finishes. There are not too many other favourites up in the top 10 right now, as most of the fleet could only manage a single good race out of the two. Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (AUS) managed to salvage the day with a good come back in the first race moving from deep up the first beat to a 16th followed with a fourth in the second race.

See previous article published on September 15, 2014:

VI's Brockbank & Anderson suffer frustrating day @ World C/ships

ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI - Virgin Islands' Sailors and Olympic hopefuls, Alec Anderson and Chris Brockbank, had a frustrating start to the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) World Championships in Santander, Spain, today, Monday September 15, 2014, as light or no winds caused the opening day to be suspended.

Brockbank and Anderson, sailing the 49er class boat, have been traversing Europe in their bid to not only qualify for the Olympics in Rio, 2016, but also to make sure they are as competitive as possible and as the pair commented on the latest stop off in Spain.

“We will officially begin the quest to earn a berth at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games! It will be a long week, but we are ready for the challenge!” they said.

A large crowd gathered to witness the Opening Ceremony in Santander, which took place 48 hours before Brockbank and Anderson take to the water in the 49er class. “We are very excited to represent the flag! With over 20 thousand people in attendance at the opening ceremony it was hard not to get pumped.”

The World Championship will also be a first chance for the pairs new Coach Robby Bisi from Argentina to see his charges in competitive race conditions, although he has seen them in action during the first week of his new role.

“We got out for a session and are very much looking forward to working with Robby for the Worlds. We did 3 races in a light sea breeze with a fleet of about 20 boats and, with continuous improvement throughout the day, took a 1st (by a solid margin) in the final race!” said the pair.

Brockbank and Anderson face 13 races over the next couple of days, once racing gets underway and the final Medal series is scheduled for Saturday 20th September.

The 49er is one of the newer one-design small sailing dinghies.

The 49ers were designed by Julian Bethwaite, son of Frank Bethwaite. Based on the Aussie 18s, Julian Bethwaite made several changes to the evolution of high performance sailing.

This is a double-handed twin trapeze boat, meaning that it is sailed by a helm and a crew. The 49er is slightly unusual as crew does most of the sail control.

In September 1996, a group of top sailors travelled from around the world to Lake Garda, Italy for a trial of many different classes, to see which would go forward as the new twin-trapeze skiff for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. After an intensive week of trialing various designs, the 49er proved to be the clear favourite with the sailors and by November 1996 it had been ratified as the new Olympic skiff.

Therefore, this boat made its debut at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and since its inclusion in the Olympic Games sailing programme, is experiencing ever increasing popularity worldwide.