Can anyone give me any info on the Venue for the ISAF youth worlds that are in Buzios mid July.
I don't really want tides and winds more like somewhere that is nice to stay near the venue and what the shore side facilities are like.

regards

Paul

Buzios is a great place to sail. There are lots of places where you can stay, only most of them aren't hotels but "pousadas". There's anything from one to five stars. For the competition I would stay close to the Iate Clube Armacao dos Buzios at the hotel they suggested. They certainly negociated better prices, it is a short walk to the club or downtown and the location is very good too. If you want to stay in the best beach, the kids can take a cab to the club (10 to 15 minutes) and you can pay the price, choose the Hotel Le Relais La Borie in Jeriba beach.

The commodore of the club is Mr. Alan Joulie and the sailing director is his son Pierre, both very nice people, monohull focused. I used to sail with or against them a long time ago. My boat stayed at their club last year. Send a PM or email sysfx (a) yahoo (dot) com for more questions, details, photos, help or anything else I can help with.

Thanks Luiz.

What is a pousada!

Paul

Paul,

It stands for resort, although its literal translation is resting place. It is like a very small, familiar, hotel or motel.

Buzios was a tiny unknown fishermen vilage north of Cabo Frio (and part of Cabo Frio) until Brigitte Bardot stayed there when she visited Brazil. The place rapidly and disorderly grew into a vocation, surfing and sailing resort, where the only place to stay was in the houses of people who lived there and rented rooms. Retiring to open a pousada in Buzios became popular in Rio and Buenos Aires and instead of calling their new and usually small establishments hotels, they kept the name "pousada".

In the begining the "pousadas" had few or no infrastructure, but this evolved rapidly: most of them are complete hotels from one to four or five stars. They keep the name for tradition and to imply that prices are lower than in a hotel, which used to be correct, but isn't necessarily the case anymore. Buzios is probably the most expensive resort in Brazil.

Next question? Don't you want to know anything about the wind? Buizos being a cape projecting into the South Atlantic, the wind and waves are like offshore conditions, local knowledge doesnn't help much. As would be expected, close to land usually means less wind, less waves and possibility of shifts, away from land usually means more wind, more wave and less shifts. www.predictwind.com forecasts worked wonderfully last year (July).

thanks for that Luiz. I can talk to people like i am an expert on pousadas now.

as far as wind etc. goes, i would usually soak it up, but in this case i am going as parent to a team member and would not dream of trying to tell the GBR sailing team how to sail the venue, they have a pretty good record of getting their homework right!

is there much multihull sailing going on there, or any multihull builders where i can get my fix while i miss the F32 in my shed?

paul

There is a small non-permanent (weekend/vocation) multihull group in Buzios. Most of the multihullers live in other cities, like Rio, Niteroi and Cabo Frio. This community is hosted in Roger Wright's house, right besides Buzios Vela Clube, the other sailing club in town, focused on dinghies and windsurfers. They used to sail Tornados, especially after Mr. Wright imported ten complete boats for the T Worlds that took place there a few years ago, but nowadays they are focused mostly on the A Class. Mr. Wright and his family sail anything, from A's to his 12 Metre "Wright in White" (in Europe, I guess).

If you want to talk and see boatbuilding, the best thing to do is get in touch with my friend Leonidas Zerboulis. He lives in Cabo Frio (less than 30 minutes drive from Buzios) and is in charge of starting the local branch of the Nautical Pole of the Federal University of Rio, which includes a technical school of marine arts whose teachers he is training.

"Grego" is a great sailor and diver, with tons of experience and countless stories. He still has the old shipyard in Cabo Frio where he used to build wonderful cold molded windsurfers to ocean racers and cruisers. He also worked as production manager in a big shipyard building composite boats in Rio. He built his 38 ft cold molded mahogany sloop alone, crossed the Atlantic and sailed to Greece on it, worked in the charter industry there, skippered mega yachts, crewed the only Brazilian boat to win the Fastnet, etc. He is THE local expert and can show you shipyard and related activities in the area. Someone is building cats there, but that's all I know.