The 2017 470 World Championships is taking place from 7-15 July 2017 at the Nautical Club of Thessaloniki, Greece.
A huge influx of young and new teams will take to the starting line and face off against the more experienced campaigners and big names in the fleet. As the first World Championships of the four-year lead up to Tokyo 2020, the event will be a benchmark for teams seeking performance indicators as they come together in an international line-up.
One hundred and thirty-three teams have entered, with sixty teams in the 470 Women and seventy-three in the 470 Men.
Afrodite Zegers/Anneloes Van Veen (NED-1)
Ahead of the 470 Worlds, the 470 Class Development Programme has been in full swing, with teams from Ecuador, Hong Kong, India, Philippines, South Africa and Thailand joining a coaching clinic. Four-time 470 World Champion Sofia Bekatorou (GRE) has been busy transferring her knowledge and expertise.
“It has been really inspiring starting this new project with the 470 Class and supporting developing nations is something I have wanted to do for a long time,” said Bekatorou. “Having this opportunity is great. It is really nice to see the dreams in their eyes of participating in the Olympics. Putting the fundamentals in place and understanding the amount of work they need to put in to become really good sailors and perform has been part of this week’s programme.”
Vasilis Papoutsoglou/Ioannis Orfanos (GRE)
The Opening Ceremony tonight at the Naval Command of Northern Greece will formally kick off the Championships, ahead of racing scheduled to start tomorrow at 1200 hours. Racing takes place on the Thermaikos Gulf with three races scheduled for the first day.
Sofia Bekatorou (GRE) and 470 Development Clinic teams
The weather forecast indicates an increase in temperature on Monday and Tuesday, with the sea breeze filling in later in the day, around 1500 hours at the earliest. Later in the week, as temperatures ease a bit, conditions will change. But whatever is served up, Thessaloniki is renowned for delivery a complicated and tricky race track, which will definitely test teams’ all-round game.
