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J/24 World Championship brings best sailors in the world to Coastal Bend

More than 200 sailors from nine different countries will race this week in Corpus Christi Bay.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas —

The best sailors in the world are in Corpus Christi for a five-day international competition.

More than 200 sailors from nine different countries will race this week in Corpus Christi Bay for the J/24 World Championship. There will be two races per day at noon and 1:30 p.m. and run from Monday to Friday. Sailors got a chance to practice Sunday ahead of the first day.

“There’s a lot to be learned from people out here. Meeting new people, I’ve met a lot of new people so far," amateur sailor Dough Weakly said. "Been able to help out some foreign teams that didn’t exactly have a truck full of tools to fix some things here and there so, it’s been a lot of fun and we’re just getting started.”

Japan is one of the countries represented internationally this week. Sailor Fumiya Kato said his team trains every week back home and is ready to set sail at Worlds.

“We will get championship,” Kato said.

There will also be some with years of experience. Amateur sailor Paul Foerster lives in Dallas now, but grew up in the Coastal Bend. He said that is where his love for sailing began. 

RELATED: Corpus Christi to host the J24 World Sailing Competition for the first time

“My dad, when we moved to Corpus, he went to the dentist office and saw a magazine on sailing and got himself a little boat," Foerster said. "And then brought us little kids along and then we learned alongside him.”

Foerster learned a lot. He went on to the University of Texas at Austin to sail and made four Olympic Games from 1988 to 2004. He won one gold medal in Athens in 2004 and two silver medals during his Olympic career.

“It was an amazing journey, that’s for sure," Foerster said. "But it was a lot of hard work, too. A lot of traveling, a lot of sailing. But, turned out great in the end.”

After taking a break to focus on family and his engineering career, Foerster is back with his old college teammates once again.

“We decided to try back and win the World Championships here in Corpus since they’re back in my home waters." Foerster said. "And we’ve been training for the last year or so on the weekends after we’re done with our normal jobs."

The J24 World Championship will end on Friday after five days of racing and the total scores for each team are added up.

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