The National Sailing Championship organised by the Yachting Association of Sri Lanka will get underway on November 3 and 4 at the Panadura (Sea Venue). This was revealed at a press conference held at the “Light House Galley’ “on Wednesday.

The 2012 Championships will see the participation by four classes of sailboat each of which is described below: Optimist, Laser, Enterprise and GPI4. While the latter two classes of boats have two and three sails each respectively and carry a crew of two (a ‘helm’ and a ‘crew’), Optimists and Lasers have only a single sail each, and are sailed by a helm only.

It is noteworthy that Optimists and Lasers are the two most popular sailboat classes worldwide: more than 300,000 boats in these two classes are in service across the globe. It is remarkable to note this year windsurfing and Jet Ski events are included in the 2012 Sailing Nationals which will add colour and glamour to the event.

The boats will be launched from the Panadura Fisheries Harbour where each class of boat will take part in six races, of which the best four results will count towards the final score.

The Optimists will sail three races on Saturday morning and three on Sunday morning, the Lasers, Enterprises and GPs will sail two races on Saturday afternoon and three races on Sunday afternoon.

The races will commence at 11.00 a.m. on Saturday and 12.00 noon on Sunday, with the awards ceremony being scheduled for 3.00 p.m. on Sunday.