Sirocco Skirmish At 470 Junior Worlds

There were back to back race wins for the French men’s and women’s teams of Guillaume Pirouelle/Valentin Sipan and Maëlenn Lemaitre/Aloïse Retornaz on a dramatic fourth day of the 470 Junior Worlds.

There was drama across the race track as the Sirocco breeze switched on and brought with it 24 knots of breeze, up to 3 metre seas and some thrilling seat of the pants racing. Racing got underway shortly after 1400 hours with the men up on the race track first.

Racing was all about staying focused and using every ounce of physical strength to optimise speed and avoiding a capsize. There were very few wind shifts so simply the fastest around the track won. But there were plenty of capsizes and a few did not finish penalty scores.

The verdict on the tough but totally thrilling conditions was perfectly summed up by Denmark’s Balder Tobiasen who said, “This is some of the most extreme weather you are going to get when racing a 470.”

The high wind drama extended to the race committee who lost their anchor when the chain snapped, forcing race 9 for the women to be postponed while they got a replacement, repositioned and reset the start line.

470 MEN

Spain’s Jordi Xammar/Joan Herp again demonstrated why they are the reigning World Champions as they mastered the track in the full on conditions, taking second places in both races. But they couldn’t quite get the upper hand over Guillaume Pirouelle/Valentin Sipan (FRA) who knocked out perfectly executed back to back race wins and closed the gap on the Spanish.

Pirouelle/Sipan were looking pretty relaxed in the boat park this morning and clearly confident on the day ahead as their strong wind skills came into action. “We worked a lot this winter in strong winds, so we have very good speed and it was actually quite easy for us today. We took two good starts and it was just speed and control of the boat,” said Sipan. An awesome performance indeed as they crossed the finish line with a winning margin of more than the last leg over the chasing Spanish.

“It was really, really exciting,” grinned Pirouelle. “The Spanish and Danish were close behind. The Danish guys were fast and we took the second start near them and they were very fast. It was equal between us in speed.”

Two more races on Wednesday complete the opening series, so a critical day on Wednesday as the French have successfully consolidated their second place on the leader board, yet also managed to stay in touch with the Spanish as Thursday’s double-points medal race draws nearer.

“For the moment, we just want to have more points between us and third, so tomorrow we just have to take two good starts and not be BFD or OCS and to a top 5 maybe. With the BFD we already have we must not make any mistakes,” concluded Pirouelle.

The Spanish have the upper hand on the discard race, as their worst score so far is a 9th, so if needed they can still carry a high scoring finish yet control the leader board.

The same teams that started the day in the leaderboard top 10 remain in the top 10, with just a shuffle in order behind the top two.

470 Men/Mixed – Top 10 Overall
1. Jordi Xammar/Joan Herp (ESP 44) – 16 pts
2. Guillaume Pirouelle/Valentin Sipan (FRA 76) – 35 pts
3. Malte Winkel/Matti Cipra (GER 13) – 56 pts
4. Balder Tobiasen/Magnus Jung Johansen (DEN-164) – 58 pts
5. Matteo Pilati/Francesco Rubagotti (ITA 27) – 64 pts
6. David Charles/Alex Charles (ESP 1) – 65 pts
7. Fabrice Rigot/Guillaume Rigot (SUI 2) – 72 pts
8. Giacomo Ferrari/Giulio Calabro (ITA-757) – 74 pts
9. Simon Diesch/Patrick Aggeler (GER 11) – 86 pts
10. Antonis Tsimpoukelis/Vasileios Kontakis (GRE 4) – 90 pts

470 WOMEN
The physical strength and sheer gut busting determination required from the women was just too adverse for some of the younger and lighter teams who retired from racing. Cervia is considered a light wind venue and ahead of the Championships rumours were plenty of the light conditions, but so far Cervia has spectacularly delivered good breezes, albeit a bit unpredictable.

Still two races to go until the top 10 advance to the Medal Race, but it would be reasonable to predict that the big battle is set to unfold for the bronze medal, as the French and British teams continue to extend over the fleet and stamp their mark on the top two places. They are beatable, but on current form are looking fairly safe at the front.

Matching their team mates in the men/mixed fleet, Maelenn Lemaitre/Aloise Retornaz (FRA) took back to back race wins. Behind them Jess Lavery/Megan Brickwood (GBR) sailed a solid 9,3.

Germany’s sister team of Greta Markfort/Anna Markfort had their best racing day of the series, built on their experience of heavy wind training in their home city, Kiel. The pair move up from 8th to 3rd, 4 points ahead of Tsuf Zamet/Saar Tamir (ISR).

Greta said, “Today was way more than we expected. We like lots of wind and in Kiel it is always windy. It is good as we normally train with the guys and they are really fast so it helps. We are also fast upwind. In the first race we were leading and then we gybed too fast, as it was hard to see the gate in the wind and waves, and we did a semi-capsize.”

Staying in control on the trapeze is just one of the tasks to juggle in strong winds. “The heart rate gets quite high,” said Anna, “but we try to keep as calm as possible and we know we are good in strong winds. I tried to tell Greta when the waves were coming so it was next wave and 3,2,1. We just tried to focus on the waves and the wind and nothing else. In these conditions it is even more important to focus on what is your job. And to tell Greta what to do, as she can’t really see anything,” concluded Anna referring to the waves and constant spray over the boat.

The Markfort sisters will be the target to beat tomorrow for the teams behind.

470 Women – Top 10 Overall
1. Maelenn Lemaitre/Aloise Retornaz (FRA 39) – 14 pts
2. Jess Lavery/Megan Brickwood (GBR 838) – 35 pts
3. Greta Markfort/Anna Markfort (GER-26) – 51 pts
4. Tsuf Zamet/Saar Tamir (ISR-77) – 55 pts
5. Noya Bar-Am/Rimon Shoshan (ISR-11) – 57 pts
6. Fabienne Oster/Alexandra Lauber (GER 95) – 63 pts
7. Maria Bozi/Anna Passa (GRE-13) – 64 pts
8. Benedetta di Salle/Alessandra Dubbini (ITA-74) – 72 pts
9. Yahel Wallach/Stav Brokman (ISR 12) – 73 pts
10. Jeanine Speelman/Marchien Speelman (NED) – 75 pts

Event Website