Sailing World Cup Melbourne wraps up: Video

St Kilda’s usual foreshore and beach buzz on a warm summer Sunday grew louder when the Sailing World Cup Melbourne reached its peak.

Eight Olympic classes peeled off their Medal Races one by one straight off the main beach, St Kilda Baths and pier, to the delight of visitors and sailors whose competition had already concluded.

Light morning northerlies moved around to the local sea breeze then tried to settle, swinging between south-east and south. By the time the men’s 49er skiff teams went hunting gold at 14:30, 15 knots was the reading on the track.

Event director Mark Turnbull OAM and Sydney 2000 sailing gold medallist, dashing between his various responsibilities around the St Kilda sailing precinct, took time to assess the popularity of the final day’s events.

 "We’ve got big crowds, plus the sailors are really happy, but importantly there are non-sailors everywhere; it’s the general public getting close to the action which is brilliant and one of the reasons why we brought sailing to the people this year."

World Sailing’s Technical Delegate Antonio González de la Madrid Rodriguez agreed racing out of St Kilda put the sport front and centre. "We saw this today with St Kilda beach packed and the pier bustling. Melbourne is the start of the 2016 Sailing World Cup series and the journey to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is well and truly on!"

Melbourne’s 2015 World Cup, which drew more than 900 competitors representing 23 nations across nine invited, nine Olympic and three Paralympic classes, was the Oceanic qualification event for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. As of this week the Olympic campaign begins for Cook Islands sailors Teau McKenzie (Laser Radial) and Taua Henry (Laser) who gained entry for the Pacific island nation.

The winner of each Olympic class at the World Cup also qualifies for the 2016 Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi in November 2016.

For all the results click
here.