Southampton team head for Royan

Southampton Institute's yachting team will be representing England at Student Yachting World Cup 2001

Southampton Institute's yachting team are to compete in the Student Yachting World Cup 2001. They came second in this event last year and will be harbouring hopes of going further to win the event this year.
They will be representing England after winning the qualifying event, the Student Yachting National Championships, which took place earlier this year. The event begins with a practise race on 27 October, and finishes on 4 November.

The six-person crew will be skippered by one of last year's crew members, Jonathan (Pom) Green who is taking a deferral year from his course in BEng (Hons) Yacht and Powercraft Design to work for the Prada America's Cup design team.

The other returning crew member from last year is Gabri Olivo from Italy, another BEng (Hons) Yacht and Powercraft Design student who has also taken a year out to work with the Prada America's Cup Team. He and Pom will be joined by Harvey Hillary, who has just finished a BA (Hons) Sports Studies degree and who is currently doing an Olympic campaign, brothers Peli and Fransisco Ruiloba from Spain who are both studying Maritime and Leisure Management, and Jo Bainbridge who is a third year BA (Hons) Photography Student. All of the team have extensive yacht racing experience and will be looking to equal if not better the performance from last year's team.

The Student Yachting World Cup is a five-day long fleet racing event which will be sailed in one-design Bénéteau Figaro yachts. There will be a mixture of short races round a course set by buoys, long offshore races and a night race to test the students in all aspects of yacht racing.

Team Captain Pom Green commented: "We are really excited to be going to this event for a second time. We did so well to come second last year that it will be quite a challenge even to equal our results. I am confident that we have an incredibly able and talented team and we will do our best to score a victory for the Institute and England."