After what was one of the windiest RS:X world championships on record,
it's time to take stock.
Racing was only possible on 4 of the scheduled seven days with no medal racing for the second time this year. Who would have thought beforehand that we would wake up each morning praying for 15 knots LESS wind...
It happens once in a career and no doubt will be remembered by the ones who were there as a high point in their racing lives. Stories will be told about the battle to win in nuking winds where top sailors were taking unscheduled trips over the handle bars... about the $1000 winner-takes-all speed session where Dorian van Rijsselberge [NED] topped 31.86 knots and Hanna Zembrzuska [POL] just failed to make 26 posting, 25.92 knots. All on standard RS:X equipment.
... About how Julien Bontemps [FRA] took gold by 2 points from Nick Dempsey [GBR]
... About how just one point covered the next three places with JP Tobin [NZL] shading it to take bronze from Dorian van Rijsselberge [NED] and Byron Kokalanis [GRE].
... About how Lee Korzits [ISR] became a double world champion by beating her sister from another mother Zofia Klepacka [POL] who took silver for the second time in 3 months. Will they repeat this at the Olympic Games or will Zofia be third time lucky?
... ... And how for the first time in Olympic windsurfing history, the top 10 men and top 10 women won a share of the US $45,000 prize money generously put up by Neil Pryde himself for which everyone who is a part of the RS:X Class is eternally grateful... Thanks, Neil
These tales will be told by more than the 200 sailors who took part - the entry list was oversubscribed in the men's fleet - Google Analytics told us that 94,457 unique visitors joined us on the event micro-site over 7 days and that the site burst into the top 60 thousand on Alexa.com when 22,000 individuals came to see the action on day one.
Our daily video news reports have been viewed by more than 30, 554 people on Youtube.com and the images shot by Vincenzo Baglione were viewed 22,772 times on one day alone
Then there is the RS:X Worlds Facebook page which has 6060 followers. The viral reach of the stories posted there topped 41,490 people between the 16th and the 22nd March.
Frankly, we are blown away by these stats.
The RS:X class is reaching a new audience of 13 to 24 year olds on Facebook. They account for 30% of the people talking about our page there. And Facebook was responsible for more than 44% of the overall traffic to the microsite
We will leave you to do the maths.
Suffice it to say that had racing been possible on more days, we would have exceeded these numbers and hit our target of 100,000 unique visitors.
In the meantime, knowing that 54 nations took part in the Olympic qualification process to compete in the RS:X windsurfing events at the Olympic regatta, it is now clear that the RS:X class meets ISAF's stated goals, first to bring many nations to Olympic sailing and second to be media friendly and promote the sport of sailing to the maximum.
For a detailed report from our TV production partners, Icarus Sailing Media click here
