August 5, 2021 - Kalev Yacht Club and Tallinn Olympic Sailing Center will host offshore sailing world championships in Tallinn for the very first time. The World Championship, the most anticipated sailing event of the year, is supported by Alexela; and organised by the Kalev, Pärnu and Tallinn yacht clubs and Tallinn Olympic Sailing Centre. A thousand sailors, 104 yachts from 12 countries shall race for the title in three classes. Estonia is represented by 34 yachts and 70 yachts come from Italy, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, and Russia.
The organizers of the Alexela ORC World Championship have made significant efforts to ensure a safe environment where all the latest Covid-19 guidelines and requirements are met as smoothly as possible, so that the planned program can take place in its full scope.
The period designated for registration, inspection, measurement and practice races is planned for 6-8 August, after which a grand opening will take place on Sunday, August 8 on the flag square of the Tallinn Olympic Sailing Centre. Athletes representing eleven countries will arrive at the opening ceremony in a procession from the adjacent Kalev Yacht Club, accompanied by the Orchestra of the Estonian Defence Forces and national flags. The ceremony shall entail hoisting the flag of the championship and lighting the symbolic Olympic flame for the evening as the flame goes out in Tokyo.
The event can be followed live via Postimees.ee and ORC World Championship Facebook page.
The championship begins on Monday, August 9, with a long, more than 30-hour offshore race on the Baltic Sea. Wednesday and Thursday, 11-12 of August, shall have two individual hour-long short races on Tallinn Bay and in the waters of the island of Naissaar. Friday, August 13, shall take the teams out for a day-long offshore race. The championship is concluded by two short-distance races on Saturday, August 14, and the award ceremony on the flag square of the Tallinn Olympic Sailing Center. The closing ceremony can be followed live via Postimees.ee and ORC Championship Facebook page.
There is also a comprehensive onshore program in place for all the participants. The Pirita regatta village is fully equipped with various services and catering provided by sponsors but on top of that the organizers would also like to give all the foreign guests an opportunity to see the beauty of our charming city of Tallinn. On Thursday, August 12, the award ceremony for the day and the "Sailors' Night" complete with music will be held downtown in Rotermann Quarter.
On two separate days the races can also be followed out on water. Designated boats will take spectators from Pirita to the competition area on August 11 and 14. Information about tickets and departure times will be available on the regatta website. All the competing yachts are equipped with GPS tracking and can be followed live on Sportrec. Video production partner Telia will record the event and the summaries of each competition day will be available on Inspira TV from 10-14 August at 8 p.m.
The entire program is available here https://www.orcworlds2021.com/schedule
Everyone with a more specific interest, can download the Sportity app, where password ORC2021 will provide access to direct information from the championship management team.
Safety at sea is provided by Tallinn Voluntary Sea Rescue. Estonian State Infocommunication Foundation has made its marine radio base stations available for use on channel 11. During the races, all boats can use channel 11 in all track areas, regardless of how far they are from the competition committee. This service is most useful from 9-10 August during the long offshore race, when radio connection is available from Estonian waters to the Finnish coast. For more information, please contact Jüri Grigorjev, juri.grigorjev@riks.ee.
Alexela ORC World Championship is a very big and important competition and Estonians have many reasons to cheer on their own as in the last decade Estonian teams have been very successful on the ORC arena. Estonian offshore teams in the ORC system are among the best both in Europe and the world. Some of the success can definitely be contributed to the fierce local competition and the efforts of Kalev Yacht Club, who has relentlessly been organising regattas, the popular Wednesday regatta among others, that have been an excellent training and breeding ground for competitive teams.
Since 2013 Estonians have every year scored medals from the ORC European or World Championships, and in 2019, both the Group C World Championship title and all medals from the European Championship came to Estonia. The most successful teams over the years have been Ott Kikkas’ Sugar, Aivar Tuulberg's Katariina II, Priit Tammemägi’s Premium, Jaak Jõgi’s Forte, and in recent years also Olympic with Tiit Vihul at the helm, Sven Nuutmann’s Postimees Sailing Team and Arne Veske’s Matilda 4. Based on ORC European Championship results, Estonia has been the best sailing country in Europe in 2013, 2016 and 2019. Let us see how it goes this time. Fingers crossed!
As a prelude to the World Championships, about one third of the fleet – 34 teams – will compete in the OneSails Cup 2021 warm-up regatta. No more than four windward-leeward short races will be held on both days. https://www.orcworlds2021.com/onesailscup2021
In addition to Alexela, the Alexela ORC World Championship is supported by the City of Tallinn, the Ministry of Culture, Sportland, Saku, Alter Marine, Amserv Toyota, Forus, Rotermann City, Pantaenius, Tactical Foodpack, Karla Auto O.K., Deinhard, Telia, Inspira, Postimees and OneSails. The World Championship is organised by Kalev Yacht Club, Pärnu Yacht Club, Tallinn Yacht Club, Estonian Yachting Union and Tallinn Olympic Sailing Center.
Alexela ORC Worlds website https://www.orcworlds2021.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/orcestonia
Additional information:
Agnes Lill
Managing Director
Alexela ORC World Championship
Ph: +372 5667 7232
Piret Salmistu
Information and Media Manager
Alexela ORC World Championship 2021
August 6-14 Tallinn, Estonia
Mob/WhatsApp: +372 507 7217
E-mail: piret.salmistu@gmail.com
