At the A-Cat annual congress during this year’s World Championships in Australia, the City of Aarhus has just been appointed as host of the A-Cat Worlds 2011.

The A-Cat catamaran, known as the fastest one-man-boat in the world, is an extremely spectacular and advanced boat type. The organiser of the A-Cat Worlds 2011 is Sailing Aarhus, an event organization established by five sailing clubs of Aarhus. The organisers have spent more than a year to prepare their bid for the A-Cat event. Lately Sailing Aarhus was in charge of the prize awarded ISAF Youth Worlds 2008.

The bid has been prepared in a close cooperation with Sport Aarhus Events and Sport Event Denmark, backed up by the Danish Sailing Federation, and is part of a long-term strategy to attract more major international sailing events to Aarhus.

‘It is an honour for us to be awarded with this World Championship,’ says Mr. Thomas Capitani Nielsen, Director of Sailing Aarhus, who adds ‘it is one of the most prestigious boat classes in the world and our efforts throughout the years to show the international sailing world that the sailing clubs in Aarhus have a strong cooperation, a solid back up in the local community and one of the world’s best sailing conditions have now been crowned with success. And we are step closer to our ultimate goal, i.e. to host the ISAF World Sailing Championship 2015, which is the Championships for all Olympic boat classes and a gigantic event. ‘

‘Denmark is surrounded by the sea and has a coastline totalling 7,314 km. Nowhere in Denmark are you more than 2 hours drive away from the sea. Denmark has therefore strong sailing traditions, and we are proud to benefit from the Danish experiences in organizing sailing events. Sailing Aarhus has previously demonstrated innovative and very professional event organization. Sport Event Denmark looks forward to welcoming the world to Denmark in 2011. Sailing will along with the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (football) and UCI Road World Championships (cycling) be some of the major events taking place in Denmark in 2011,’ says Lars Lundov, Chief Executive of Sport Event Denmark

Facts:
A-Cat is a so-called ”construction class” with fixed measurements, weight etc. to be kept. However, the choice of material and construction form is up to the boat builder. This means that experiments are often made regarding exotic materials such as coal fibre, titanium etc. to keep the weight of the boat lowest possible and also plane blades instead of sails are part of experiments to give the boats extra speed and acceleration. Which again challenges and attracts the best yachtsmen, who have to be toptuned to manage the boat, which is why many Olympic Games and America’s Cup participants are drawn towards the A-Cat class.

For further information please contact
Press Manager of The City of Aarhus Michael Jaap, +45 40 22 87 99
Director of Sailing Aarhus Thomas Capitani Nielsen, +45 20 40 84 42
Chief Executive of Sport Event Denmark, Lars Lundov, +45 40 31 48 55


Inviting the World of Sport
In 2009 more than 40 major international sports events are taking place all over Denmark, including the IOC Olympic Session and the Olympic Congress. The World Taekwondo Championships, the UEFA Congress, the World Wrestling Championships and the LEN Congress are also among the many events taking place in Denmark. Due to the many events the Danish Government has appointed the year 2009 as the Danish Year of Sport. The Year of Sport is part of a national effort to realise a vision of the Danish Government: to place Denmark firmly as one of Europe’s leading hosts of major international sports events and congresses.

View the entire event calendar for 2009 on sporteventdenmark.com