Competition is due to start in Port Phillip tomorrow in the 470 Men, 49er Men, Finn Men, Laser Men, 470 Women, 49erFX Women, Laser Radial Women, RS:X Women, IKA - Formula Kite Open, 2.4mR, SKUD18 and Sonar.

A total of 180 sailors across eight Olympic and three Paralympic classes will vie for top 10 finishes to qualify for the medal races on Sunday (December 13).

International names to watch out for in the coming days include Belarus' Tatiana Drozdovskaya in the Laser Radial, as well as Laser sailors Giovanni Coccoluto of Italy, Stefano Marcio of South Africa and Lee Parkhill of Canada.

Marcio is his country’s Laser class qualifier for Rio 2016, while Parkhill finished fifth in the Laser at August's Olympic test event and won a bronze medal at this year's Pan American Games in Toronto.

London 2012 Olympian Colin Cheng of Singapore and Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy of Malaysia are two more hoping to feature in the medal races.

As for the Paralympic fleets, France's Damien Seguin won gold in the 2.4mR class at last week's Para World Sailing Championships in Melbourne.

The Athens 2004 gold medallist finished ahead of Great Britain’s London 2012 champion Helena Lucas, another name to look out for at the World Cup.

Australian Paralympic gold medallists and 2015 Para world sailing champions Dan Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch have had the British team of Alexandra Rickham and Nicky Birrell on the ropes ever since they relegated the British sailors to third place at London 2012 in the SKUD18.

The battle between the British Sonar team of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas and Australians Colin Harrison, Jonathan Harris and Russel Boaden is also expected to continue at the World Cup, which serves as the Oceanic qualifier for Rio 2016. 

Last week, six Australian sailors were selected for Rio 2016, while those still aiming for selection on the Australian Sailing Team's Olympic squad are competing at the World Cup,

The Irish, Canadian and American teams have travelled the furthest to one of Melbourne's signature sporting calendar events.

Canadian Laser sailor Evert McLaughlin goes into tomorrow's first race with extra zest having beaten the international fleet in the Laser warm up regatta that finished yesterday.

Pre-regatta confidence for Kiwi 470 sailors Sam Barnett and Zak Merton was boosted when the pair scored a win in the Australian Championship that also wrapped up in Port Phillip yesterday.

To put sailing front and centre, the seventh edition of the event moved from Sandringham to the specially created St Kilda sailing precinct of the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron (RMYS), St Kilda Baths, St Kilda Beach and Catani Gardens.

There is historical significance attached to RMYS, which played host to the Summer Olympic Games in 1956 when Australia won its first two medals in Olympic sailing.

John Scott and Rolland Tasker claimed silver in the 12 metre class, while the team of Doug Buxton, Devereaux Mytton and Alex "Jock" Sturrock won bronze in the 5.5m class.

Oli Tweddell, event ambassador and Rio 2016 hopeful in the Finn class, said: "It's a pretty cool move having the World Cup at St Kilda, there's great exposure for the sport and lots to do from an international sailor's point of view."

Looking ahead to his own campaign which starts tomorrow, he added: "It's always great having a World Cup on home waters and I'm happy to support the event.

"This regatta I'll be targeting a few key areas where I made some mistakes at the Finn World Championship in New Zealand a fortnight ago.

"I'll be trying to eradicate those from my game."



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