With a total of 61 boats confirmed, competitive sailing is anticipated. This prestigious event is held every two years, most recently the competition took place in Darwin, Australia and Victoria, Canada.

Tasar dinghys

Tasars are sailed by 2 people

Tasar dinghys are 4.5 meter (15 foot) sailboats designed for performance that can easily reach 15 knots (24 km/h) and are sailed by 2 people. Often crews are husband and wife, father and son/daughter or brothers/sisters, with a minimum weight limit and no maximum anyone can form a crew, this makes it a very sociable class which attracts many recreational sailors. The competitors ages range from around 15 to 65 years old so Tasars aren't only for the young. Even though this is not an Olympic class, in keeping with previous years, racing is expected to be at a high level with each race hotly contested.

Two of the crews are from Thailand, with the rest mainly coming from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, UK and USA, The boats will be arriving in Phuket in shipping containers and then shipped back to their home countries, shipping costs around US$1,000 each way. At around US$12,000 new, they're not exactly cheap to buy but the price is competitive for a performance dinghy, their lifetime should be upwards 30 years so there's plenty of time to get value for money.

Robert M Warnes, organiser based in Phuket

Action!

I had the chance to speak to Robert M Warnes, the only organiser based in Phuket, I figured that he must be busy, “I dedicate about half of each day to organising everything, it doesn't help that I don't speak Thai. I usually have to go back to each office 2 – 3 times to ensure I've got everything right”. Has it been difficult working with the local authorities I asked “Not at all, on the contrary everyone's been really helpful. I've met the Governor of Phuket a couple of times and he's happy to coordinate all the local government agencies on our behalf. Also TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand) have been fantastic, they're even sponsoring our welcome party“. What does this mean for Phuket if it's successful? “Under ISAF (International Sailing Federation) rules every class must hold a world championship every 2 years and there are dozens of classes. Here's a great location with good infrastructure, wind and plenty of attractions off the water so there's no reason why Phuket couldn't host a different class every year as everybody wants an excuse to come here”. The director of TAT Phuket (Tourism Authority of Thailand) added, “Tasar WC 2007 is a water sport activity that TAT is supporting. It is a way to show that Phuket is capable of holding all kinds of water sports events. When Phuket was selected as Asia's Maritime Capital at the recent Christofle Asia Boating Awards, it proved that Phuket is the destination in Asia for people who love water based activities".

Each race will be around 1 – 1 ½ hours long with up to 3 races per day. A minimum of 10 races must be completed, however depending on conditions there will be up to 18 races. Competitive racing starts 5th July.

For more info see the Tasar 2007 WC website: www.tasarworlds.com/