CNN’s Mainsail show to feature Landsailing World Championship

The North American Land Sailing Association (NALSA) will be the focus when CNN International airs the August edition of its highly-acclaimed global sailing TV show Mainsail, which features the recently completed Landsailing World Championship.

Show times will be August 14 at 0930 and 1630; August at 16 0730 and 2100; and August 17 at 1630, all local times. Mainsail is not aired on U.S. television. American audiences should, however, be able to enjoy the show on the Mainsail website on or before August 17.

The FISLY-NALSA 14th Landsailing World Championship was held in the U.S. at Smith Creek Playa, near the town of Austin in Northern Nevada, on July 13-19.

The show’s host, two-time Olympic sailing gold medalist Shirley Robertson, and her crew spent almost a week in Northern Nevada filming the show. She will introduce her global water sailing audience to land yachting through own her experiences of learning about the sport and actually competing in this major international regatta. Shirley and the competitors representing 15 nations and four continents experienced a full array of wild sailing conditions and the stark beauty and sheer vastness presented by the high desert locale.

“We are very pleased and honored that Shirley chose this regatta to introduce her viewers to our sport,” NALSA President Dennis Bassano said. “Hers is certainly the largest TV audience ever to see a major land yachting event, and I think they will be amazed by the variety of conditions we faced, the fun we had and the beauty of the area.”

International Federation of Sand and Land Yachts (FISLY) President Alan Watson (Ireland) waxed euphoric about his experiences at the 2014 Land Sailing World Championship in this statement:

Where rivalry and national pride is combined with passion and international camaraderie.

Sailors from 4 continents sail hard and fast for World Championship titles in a beautiful location surrounded by dust devils, fantastic sunrises, sunsets and night skies.

Extreme heat, thunder storms and rain combined with all kinds of shifting wind, dust storms or hailstones do not distract these sailors’ focus.

This is extreme sailing; this is Land Sailing, American Style, superbly organized by the North American Landsailing Association (NALSA) in the middle of Smith Creek dry lake Nevada for the worldwide landsailing organization FISLY.

WC 2014 was a spectacular event with spectacular sailing and eternal memories recorded. We thank you, NALSA!

Based on comments from the Mainsail team after they had reviewed their footage, the August edition of the show should be something special and more than live up to the descriptions of the regatta’s wildness, beauty, competitiveness and fun described in Dennis Bassano’s and Alan Watson’s quotes above.

Event website: http://www.nalsa.org/Worlds2014Splash.html

NOTE: The above video was filmed during the Worlds on the actual dry lake surface with voice-over by Shirley Robertson. Hint: the real Mainsail is full scale with full size people and land yachts.

Source: North American Land Sailing Association

Jean-Philippe Krischer, Shirley Robertson and videographer Tim confer prior to filming a sequence for Mainsail. Photo credit: Joanne Chambers.