The Venue Menu

Everyone has a favourite sailing venue and various reasons why. For some, a favourite venue has everything to do with the excellent wine bar just down the road from the boat park. For others, it’s the boat park itself (I’m a pretty big fan of the non-stop techno music loop which is played for a solid week in Medemblik during the Delta Lloyd Regatta). In this page, we’ll explore venues for better or for worse, and why we love/hate them. Enjoy!

First and foremost, what is YOUR favourite venue? Here are some of the top rated venues in the world, and they’re definitely on my bucket list. But what is yours?

Helsinki: Great venue for sailing

Cesme, Turkey

In September 2011, Cesme hosted the Favor Skiff Cross Event. The idea was to have a resort town, two double trapeze skiffs, a bunch of cute smiling girls sailing really fast and wearing minimal and/or tight Spandex, and a whole pile of media. In this endeavour the regatta officials succeeded. There were girls a-plenty and a bunch of media, not to mention a pile of men who were just as happy to watch the bikini clad competitors on the float as they were to watch 29erXX’s crashing rather spectacularly around the race course. This was my third event in Turkey in as many years, and with each event it becomes more apparent that the Turkish are some of the most gracious and hospitable hosts I have ever had the pleasure to come across. Really and truly, if you want to be treated like royalty, go to Turkey. There is also the beautiful heat, fantastic coffee (unless you happen to mistake Turkish coffee for Nescafe), and spices, dates, figs, and olives to keep you happy until the cows come home. As for the actual racing, however, it was challenging to say the least. Race course was so close to shore that you were literally ducking cruise boats as they came in and out of the busy harbour. Perhaps it was just incidental that our start line was at the mouth of the harbour? In order to ensure media friendliness, we also traded the steady 18 knot sea breeze which was a mere 500 metres offshore for in harbour racing. This in harbour racing featured 20-40 degree shifts and unpredictable puffs from 3-18 knots. Challenging on a 350 metre course in a skiff! Oh well, exciting for the hosts, the media, and the spectators…and hey, if flinging scantily-clad, athletic young ladies off of sail boats at high speeds gets us sponsorship for next year’s event…well then I guess I can make that sacrifice for sailing.