By Richard Geake-Ransome: Club Member and National Judge
Over the last few years I’ve been pursuing accreditation as a sailing racing rules judge, and have been grateful for the support of the Club in this. Earlier this year I was made up to National Judge, and was fortunate to be invited to join the jury at the ILCA4 worlds in Volos, Greece.
No doubt you will have heard about the fires raging recently in southern Greece and the Greek Islands. Northern Greece seems to have been spared much of this destruction, but as chance would have it the week of the ILCA4 Worlds coincided with extreme heat, leading to race days to be cancelled variously for not enough wind, too much wind, and temperatures above 45c on the course area. Several wildfires broke out in towns around Volos, creating a good deal of nervousness among competitors, coaches and officials.
The way in which the club, the class and the coaches responded to these fires was, simply put, remarkable. On the first day of the fires, sailing had been cancelled early in the afternoon, and the club made the decision to redirect spare meals to firefighters. The following afternoon, the fires reached an ammunition facility – probably a little greater a distance away than from Melbourne to Geelong – and the explosions could be heard right across the water at the club (we were mid protest hearing at the time!). The club enlisted the support of the coaches to help evacuate residents by RHIBs from a nearby town threatened by the fires. I am told that more than 130 people were evacuated – there is an article on the World Sailing website if you are interested: https://www.sailing.org/2023/07/31/sailing-coaches-save-stranded-locals-amidst-wildfire-emergency-in-greece/.
A little about the sailing … other than the extremes of the first few days, the event was well-organised, despite a few teething issues, and on the days racing was able to get underway, sailors were treated to champagne sailing conditions. Head count: just under 440 sailors!
