Veterans hit town for titles

• The 1996 505 World Championship website

THE arrival of former world 505 sailing champion Olle Wenrup and his skipper Ebbe Rosen in Townsville yesterday brings the first of the European crews who will compete in the next month's Australian and world championships on Cleveland Bay.
Wenrup was forward hand for the legendary Krister Bergstrom when the pair won the world title in 1987 in Finland and the following year in Sydney. Bergstrom also won the 505 world titles on two other occasions.
The pairing of Rosen and Wenrup for this year's titles follows their third placing at last year's worlds in England. The Swedes are part of 37 international crews that will contest the nationals and world in Townsville. The Swedish duo are already impressed with the Townsville's weather, after leaving their home base in Stockholm on the weekend for their flight to Australia. "The lake we sail on near Stockholm has a thick covering of ice right now so this is just beautiful," Wenrup said. "We are going to enjoy sailing in these warm conditions."

The pair spent part of yesterday afternoon sitting on the lawn in front of Townsville Sailing Club, soaking up the sunny conditions. The pair scoffed at the suggestion that sailing in hot North Queensland conditions would be a challenge. "How could it be a challenge sailing in weather like this, this is beautiful," Wenrup said. "We'll get used to sailing in the sun very quickly." The Swedish pair were unconcerned that this year's world championships were so far from home. "It'll be worth it, this is always a great event, no matter where it's held," Wenrup said. This is my 17th worlds and Ebbe's 16th so we've been round for a long time." The Swedes said they planned to give all comers a nudge in the battle for honours. "But you know there is always some new Australian guys that you don't know and who is going really fast," Wenrup said. "You just never know with the Australians, they are very competitive people down here."

But the arrival of the Swedes' boat has caused a minor hiccup for Townsville quarantine officials. When Australian Quarantine Inspection Service officers inspected the container yesterday morning they found packaging material included wood, a prohibited import under Australian quarantine regulations. Supervising inspector Craig Hamsley said the timber was to be removed from the Swedish container and held until it was again needed for repacking. "What we do in a situation like this is simply store the timber in a secure place, in this case in another sealed container, until the boats are repacked." Wenrup and Rosen inspected their boat yesterday morning and found that some packing material had slipped, damaging their boat. "We've had a look in the container and we think there is some damage," Rosen said. "But we're not concerned about this, we'll be able to repair what damage has been done in plenty of time," Rosen said.

A total of 11 containers will be arriving from South Africa, Britain, Perth, Adelaide and Sydney today and tomorrow. Transport organiser for the championships, John Whitbread, has his problems with the expected late arrival of the container from the United States. "The ship with this one on doesn't arrive in Sydney until Thursday which is going to make it pretty tight," Whitbread said. "But the shipping company has been exellent and they have a rail wagon booked and plan to have the container out of Sydney on Friday. "Hopefully it will be here next Tuesday."

• Worlds report with photos and results