Third day's a charm

Day three of the 2016 World Championships in Clearwater, FL kicked off with a sunny, 4-8 knot variance giving everyone a sigh of relief and readiness. A beautifully clear Floridian day means: the Worlds has really begun!

49er

The fleet rigged up and got after it early launching to make a 10am start. The breeze dropped quite a bit, but after one general recall, the fleets were able to begin their day. One race was sailed in a slowly dying 5-7 knots, but unfortunately a third of the fleets were DNF due to the almost non-existent pressure. Almost two hours later and the 49er gods finally answered the RC’s prayers. A building sea breeze allowed the boys to sail three more races getting a total of four in before the ladies were sent out to reap the same wind benefits.

Burling and Tuke had once again a strong performance on the Yellow course, getting straight bullets, absolutely slaughtering competition. The boys were able to take switch gears effortlessly between conditions. “Four straight bullets in one day, don’t think we ever have done that before, ” humbly remarked Blair Tuke. Both boys had some minor injuries from yesterdays blustery day, but from the looks of the results it would take a lot to stop these two! The closest competitor from these two is none other than Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, their worthy Aussie opponent. Outteridge and Jensen sailed impressively consistent all day, yet the scoring showed their second race of the day as DNF. Outteridge and Jensen went straight to RC to fix this little issue, as they actually won that particular race. Ten points from the Kiwi’s, these two boats haven’t competed on the same course yet, but they already seem to be throwing down the gauntlet.

John Pink and Stuart Bithel of team GBR have come out of the gate swinging. With the lowest score of the day being a 6th, these two consistently sailed their own race and were able to nab two 6th’s, a 5th, and a 2nd. The other top British boat of Dylan Fletcher-Scott and Alain Sign are also having quite the start sitting just three points behind Pink & Bithel. The British selection committee keeps things pretty well wrapped, but these two boats are definitely feeling the heat from one another’s performances early on. “I think the pressures on the other guys. We are just focusing on our results and I guess we’ll just see how it comes out getting to the end of the week,” says Alain Sign, cool as a cucumber.

Also on the Blue course with the Aussies, the French lead the pack with Julien D’ortoli and Noe Delpech sitting top of the pack after race two, but a 7th gave these two a bigger gap from the Aussies.  D’ortoli and  Delpech gave a consistent top 7 performance throughout the four races leaving them sitting thirteen points out of first overall. Julien notes, “For us to switch modes [from yesterday’s conditions] we try to re-focus. In strong winds, you just have to think about the speed, and the technique. Then in no wind its just, you think about which side, which start, it’s just a really different mode.” The French selection is also quite coy when it comes to selections as the sailors won’t know who goes until the beginning of March, nor what regattas and performances they based their selection off of.

Tomasz Januszewski and Jacek Nowak didn’t have the best performance in the 2015 Worlds in Argentina, but they surely are starting out this 2016 Worlds on a better note. Currently sitting seventh overall (third for the Yellow course) Jacek is pleased with the way they’ve started their World Championship. “We are happy with the way we’ve started this regatta, in those locations, even if we had a bad start in the last race. Being on the right side of the last start was not the way to go. We are not calculating, but I know we are in a good position.”

Carlos Paz Blanco and Anton Paz of Spain have started their Worlds on the Yellow course and seem to be the comeback kids for Spanish sailing. The pair qualified Spain in Santander during the 2014 Worlds, but haven’t been exactly hitting the same top performances as the Alonsos, and Diego Botin/Iago Lopez Marra. The Alonso’s have a chance at taking the Spanish berth during this event by finishing in top eight to steal the show. The other two Spanish teams need to place within the top eight, or else the fight is terminado, aka all over. “Right now we need to focus on medal race, and then in the medal race try to take a look at the points to see if we need to push more or its enough, ” says Anton. The brothers were pretty consistent until the third race of the day. Carlos makes note of the difficult conditions by stating, “The third one was really difficult for us; we made a bad decision at the start, but that was our throwout. The last one [fourth race of the day] we got pretty lucky. The right was really right, and we got a second, so we’re pretty happy. Have to try to keep that up.”

49er FX

Fx sailors had a postponement on shore until mid-afternoon,  allowing the guys a bit of extra time to get some more racing in before the old switch-a-roo. The ladies were sent out at about 2pm for a 3pm start. The women were able to tune up and get their sea legs back after a wet and wild day. Wild this day was not, as the women had feel good FX conditions, flatter water and manageable breeze. Yay! The ladies were all smiles, and slightly less frozen than the previous day due to quick, efficient racing.

Swedish team Julia Gross and Cecilia Jonsson felt their day was up and down, but were pleased with getting four races in after a hard initial start to this 2016 Worlds. The team took a bit of dip in their scores when they took a 15th in the second race for the day. They felt even though this was the downer, the bullet at the end made up for the trickier conditions. “Everyone was up and down, but we had everyone behind us in the last race, so that felt pretty good.” Ending on a high, great job girls!

German sailors Victoria Jurczok and Anika Lorenz are taking their FX fleet by the reigns and completely taking control. The pair didn’t falter even as the breeze did vary several knots from the time the FX sailors got out to the courses to until the wee hours of daylight they had left to sail in. Two bullets to start the day, and then a 2nd and 5th to round out their epic start to this World Championship. There are three other German teams competing during this event. This regatta will be used to help determine selection. It may be chilly down in Clearwater, but the heat is on for the German FX girls!

Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth of team GBR also had a fiery day taking fourth place overall. The pair had a shaky start as they pulled a 19th to begin with. The two, although disappointed, are known for shaking it off and “putting on their Jagger pants,” as the girls said back in Argentina. “We just approached every race as if it was a new day. New race equals new opportunity,” replied Sophie Ainsworth after being asked how they approached the next set of races, winning them a bullet in race three of their set.

Rounding out the top five are 2014 World Champions Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze in fifth, along with recent Miami World Cup Champions Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech in fourth.

Nacra 17

Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin made the best of a light airs day three at the Nacra 17 Worlds to move to 3rd overall after the young Australians scored 5,4,1. It was a long day on the water, almost six hours, so maintaining concentration was difficult, but absolutely key.

The Italian crew of Vittorio Bissaro and Silvia Sicouri also did well, moving up to 2nd overall with 3,10,2. Bissaro was rightly pleased with his team’s performance. “Boatspeed was critical today, and we were fast so that made life easier,” he said. “So far at these Worlds we have had a big variety of conditions. Every day is different, so it’s a fair battle across many different types of wind.”

Normally the Australian and Italian performances would be enough to close the gap on the leaders, but the leaders are the three-time World Champions Billy Besson and Marie Riou who appear unstoppable in the Nacra 17 right now. Scores of 4,1,3 have helped to build a lead of 25 points over the second-placed Italians, so it seems likely the French will go to the Olympics as winners of all four World Championships in the young life of the Nacra 17 class. Not that Bissaro is seeing things that way. “Billy is doing better races than us at the moment, but we have everything we need to be in front, we are confident.”

Denmark’s Allan Norregaard and Anette Viborg Andreasen slipped from 2nd to 4th with a ho-hum day, but they’re still not far away from the podium. Norregaard knew what he needed to do, it was just hard to execute in the light winds and choppy water. “Sail free, find your own space, because as soon as you were close to other people it was hard. Finding your own lanes was important.”
 

Tom Phipps agreed with that assessment, and together with Nicola Boniface finds himself leading his more experienced British team mates. Scores of 6,5,21 have lifted the young Brits to 7th overall. “A good day in messy conditions,” said Phipps. “We were able to find a lane to use our boatspeed. So often you’re caught on the back of someone else, just being held up in one direction or other, but we found lanes that enabled us to optimise the boatspeed.” The young crew are sailing way above expectations, and aren’t considered serious prospects for Rio 2016 selection, although if they were to carry on like this they will be hard to ignore. “For us, Nick and I started sailing together almost exactly a year ago. It’s been a baptism. It’s been a battle against a lot of things, and it’s nice that everything is falling into place now. It bodes well for the future.”
 
Tomorrow’s breeze looks set for a moderate south-westerly breeze, which should suit the Nacra fleet nicely.

Qualifying from the 9-11th of February. Silver and Gold fleet racing from the 12-14th with the Medal races on the 14th. The main hub of information will on www.49er.org

Live broadcast links and embeds:
Day 4 – Friday 12th February, 2016 – 12:00 eastern time USA

– 49er, 49erFX Gold Fleet: – https://youtu.be/ue_3hkDFiLQ

Click here for results – www.saillife.com/#!results/xnacl

Livecast provider SailTracks covers 49er and 49erFX World Championships 2016 in Clearwater

SAP together with its innovation partner SailTracks will produce a cutting-edge daily live coverage of the final days of the 49er and 49erFX World Championships in Clearwater/Florida from the 12th to the 14th of February.

With this milestone event on the road to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August 2016, SAP and SailTracks continue their engagement to bring sailboat racing closer to its fans worldwide.

Live leaderboards, 2D and 3D course animations, on-board and drone cameras paired with expert commentary and live analytics mark the unique style of SailTracks’ sailing coverage.

Whilst aiming at the highest possible standard when it comes to telling the story behind the live footage and live data, SailTracks keeps a close eye on providing cost effective packages for any type of inshore sailing regatta.

The 49er and 49erFX Worlds are the first of many events that SailTracks will cover in 2016. “We are looking forward to upgrading our game again event by event in 2016,” says Marcus Baur, Managing Director of SailTracks. “With SAP´s unparalleled ‘Sailing Analytics’ solution and the smart camera and data transmissions technologies we deploy, we are certain to be able to grow a sailing fan base around our wonderful sport in a sustainable way.”

Tune in and follow the action on the 12th, 13th and 14th of February.

Show times 49er and 49erFX Worlds (http://49er.org/event/2016-world-championship/):

12th February
Noon (local time): Gold Fleet 49er and 49erFX

13th February
Noon (local time): Gold Fleet 49er and 49erFX

14th February
10am (local time): Gold Fleet 49er and 49er FX
Afternoon: Medal Races 49er, 49erFX, Nacra17