Part 1 ?? January To March

It wasn’t a cold start for 2004, at least not for the hundreds of Olympic hopefuls who woke up on 1 January, perhaps with slightly sore heads, to realize that once the year was out, the Olympic Games would have been and gone, the medals presented, hopes and dreams made or shattered, and careers and friendships in the sport forged forever.

To a more pressing job at hand however, the first ISAF Grade 1 Olympic Classes Regatta of the Olympic Year was at Sail Melbourne in the heat of the Southern Hemisphere summer.

Before Sail Melbourne started on 12 January, ISAF President Paul HENDERSON gave his traditional speech about the forthcoming year. Published on 1 January on the ISAF website, Paul spoke of the challenges of running the technical aspects of the Olympic Sailing Competition, which is ISAF’s responsibility under the International Olympic Committee, as well as the responsibility of selecting the equipment to be used in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Paul set the scene on this by stating, ‘The Olympic Games equipment and regulations should err on the side of talent not technology.’  A comment that was to have implications come the 2004 ISAF Annual Conference in November in Copenhagen.

Sometimes controversial and never shy about bringing things to the table to be addressed, Paul concluded in his speech that, ‘2004 will be a challenging year. It is only by putting the issues on the table for all to discuss that ISAF can meet the needs of what must be the sport with the broadest spectrum of activities which therefore produces diverse and passionate reactions.’  He could not have been more right.

 

At Sail Melbourne, the only ISAF Grade 1 event in the Southern Hemisphere, Faustine MERRET (FRA) opened her 2004 Olympic medal assault with a nine point victory against nearest Jessica CRISP (AUS) in the Mistral Women’s fleet. In the men’s fleet Julien BONTEMPS (FRA) also had a pretty solid regatta, wrapping up his first Grade 1 event of the year with a well earned victory.

 

Paul GOODISON (GBR) made a welcome return to top level Laser Sailing after a six month lay off and proved he was still a force to be reckoned with, finishing first in Melbourne. In the 49er class Chris NICHOLSON and Gary BOYD (AUS) won a tough final race to clinch victory.

 

In many classes the final day of racing was cancelled, this included the Tornado fleet, which was won by Robbie LOVIG and Glen DOUGLAS (AUS) and the Finn fleet, won by Anthony NOSSITER (AUS). Krystal WIER (AUS) won the Europe class whilst local Sailors Nathan WILMOT and Malcolm PAGE (AUS) capped their earlier win at the 420 World Championship victory with a Grade 1 win in the 470. Kazuto SEKI and Kenjiro TODOROKI (JPN) had an excellent regatta to finish in third place overall in the men’s 470 with 39 points. They were ranked 21 in the ISAF World Sailing Rankings going into the event and were not expected to finish in a top three position with six of the top ten sailors in the world present – was this a sign of things to come? The women’s fleet was topped by Spanish Olympic hopefuls Natalia VIA DUFRESNE and Sandra AZON.

 

The Paralympic events were represented at Sail Melbourne by the 2.4mR, which was won by Stuart SHIELD (AUS).

 

Staying with Disabled Sailing, the inaugural IFDS Single-Person Dinghy World Championship also took place underneath the Sail Melbourne umbrella. Sailed in the Access Liberty class, the event was split into two fleets depending on the athlete’s level of IFDS classification. Fleet A was won by Daniel FITZGIBBON (AUS), whilst the Fleet B Championship went to Zoltan PEGAN (AUS). Two months later at the end of March the inaugural IFDS Two-Person Keelboat World Championship contested in the Martin 16 was go get underway in the USA, 29 March-3 April 2004.

 

The first ISAF World Match Race Rankings were released on 19 January 2004 and saw the experienced face of Karol JABLONSKI (POL) leading the Open Rankings, although his lead was steadily being cut with the new influx of former America‘s Cup skippers and commentators. In the Women’s Rankings, Marie BJORLING (SWE) still topped the list.

 

 

The second ISAF Grade 1 Olympic Classes Regatta of the year kicked off in the party haven of Miami with the Rolex Miami OCR from 27-30 January. As the only ISAF Grade 1 ranking event in the USA for Olympic classes, the Rolex Miami OCR has a track record for high attendance by foreign teams, and this was clearly evident for some of those newly selected by for Olympic representation, or indeed those still seeking national selection. Many Nations were using the ISAF Grade 1 events as qualification or selection regattas for Athens. No wind on the final day in Miami left some a little bemused and the results from the penultimate day stood. The final report of racing is available by clicking HERE.

 

At the end of January, the Iraqi National Olympic Committee was reconstituted after the meeting of its Constituent General Assembly held under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the city of Al-Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. This meant that Athletes from Iraq would be eligible to compete in the Olympic Games in Athens in August.

There was, and always is plenty of news from the World Sailing Speed Record Council during this period of the year. Teams attempting the fantastically difficult Jules Verne trophy use the advantage of the Southern Hemisphere summer to make their passage through the Southern Ocean that little bit less severe. While Bruno PEYRON’s (FRA) newly launched Orange II was sitting on standby awaiting a favorable weather window, Olivier De KERSAUSON (FRA) and his tried and tested drew aboard the trimaran Geronimo set off for the South.

 

At this point in time, Jean Luc Van Den HEEDE (NED) aboard his aluminium monohull Adrien, was battling against the prevailing winds in an attempt to set a new record for a single-handed trip the “wrong” way round, or westabout. Van Den Heede cruised to a new record, prompting French President Jacques CHIRAC to note: ‘a superb performance which will be written into the annals of maritime history, and which together with your talent provokes admiration in us all.’ The new record was ratified as belonging to Van Den Heede with a time of 122 days, 14 hours, 3 minutes, 49 seconds.

Geronimo retired less than two weeks after setting off on her attempt due to sail damage, returning to Brest in France to give the team a second chance while the weather in the South held. In the meantime, Steve FOSSETT’S (USA) multihull Cheyenne, with Australian ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year nominee Adrienne CAHALAN (AUS) as navigator set off on their hunt, closely followed by Orange II, and then Geronimo, setting the scene for an epic three way timed race around the world.

As it was, Orange II was forced out early on, leaving it a match race between Geronimo and Cheyenne. Whilst Cheyenne smashed the WSSRC Round the World Record, she was not awarded the Jules Verne Trophy due to entry disputes. Geronimo, finishing later, was outside Fossett’s time but he was within the Jules Verne time set by Bruno PEYRON’s first Orange a couple of years ago. Confused? So was the rest of the World.

Frenchman Francis JOYON became the fastest single-handed sailor around the world in a time of 72 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes, 22 seconds, smashing the previous record and upping the ante on Ellen MACARTHUR and her newly built and custom made 70ft trimaran, B&Q Castorama.

As of 1 January 2004, ISAF implemented the 2004 WADA Anti-Doping Code. The list of prohibited substances was amended on 28 March after the discovery of a new designer steroid, THG.

In the build up to Athens 2004, ISAF launched the Athens 2004 microsite, which provided comprehensive information about the 2004 Olympic Games, the Sailing event, location and venue, and ongoing list of qualified nations and their respective athletes, and the necessary documents for teams, athletes and spectators alike. National trials continued to take place and as more and more athletes were confirmed by their nations to perform for the highest accolade of them all, ISAF brought you all the latest news.

ISAF hosted an International Umpires Seminar at its offices in Southampton from 26-28 March. With a theme of ‘Consistency Whilst Improving’, the Conference was inspired by the inaugural 2003 ‘Rule 42’ Conference and over 50% of all International Umpires from around the world attended. Conference Chair John DOERR (GBR) commented on the Seminar, ‘This has been a perfect opportunity to bring together a huge range and depth of knowledge, to share and pass on that knowledge, to educate on existing and develop future procedures, and to discuss where we need to go in the future.’

 

With the proximity of the Olympic Games and the development of the sport at its highest level always at the forefront of the Federation, the sailing media and the sailing public at large, this opportunity was not lost and the seminar was an important development in Umpire training throughout the world.

 

ISAF was also represented at the IOC World Conference on Women in Sport, held in Morocco, during which the conference recognized that the goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of human beings everywhere, with a view to encouraging the establishment of a peaceful society.

 

A plethora of World Championships were held, the majority of those in the Southern Hemisphere and many as part of Sail Melbourne. Congratulations must be extended to World Champions in the following Classes for 2004:

 

Lightning (Youth): Thomas SUMNER, Mark PINEDA, Felipe BRITO (BRA)

Finn: Ben AINSLIE (GBR)

Sonar: Steve SHEPSTONE, Melissa SHEPSTONE, Tom KINNEY and Mike LOEB (USA)

A-Class: Glenn ASHBY (AUS)

Soling: Gustavo WARBURG, Hernan CELEDONI and Máximo SMITH (ARG)

11 Metre: Steve MCCONAGHY, Michael SPIES, Genevieve WHITE, Ethan ATKINS & Scott MCCONAGHY (AUS)

420 Open: Nathan WILMOT and Malcolm PAGE (AUS)

420 Women : Elise RECHICHI and Tessa PARKINSON (AUS)

Yngling Open: Neville WITTEY (AUS)

Flying Dutchman: Szabolcs MAJTHENYI and Andras DOMOKOS (HUN)

 

Click here for all the News from the ISAF website for January, February and March