ISAF Sailing World Cup at Hyéres - Day 4
by Corinne Mckenzie 26 Apr 2012 08:46 BST
22-27 April 2012
Light winds shuffle results
Different skills were tested today with light and shifty winds on the race course. Few leaders could maintain their position while others collected high points.
Piotr Myszka (POL) is keeping his first position in the RS:X men with top five results, but the day's conditions suited better his team mate Lukaz Grodzicki (POL) who claims both races. Shahar Zubari (ISR) climbs to second with Toni Wilhem (GER) in third on equal points with Przemek Miarczynski (POL).
Tom Slingsby (AUS) proved once again he truly deserves his World #1 status. The Australian placed twice second in the light air, after top three scores in the breeze. He leads from German Philipp Buhl who scored mixed results with a 15th and a first. Andy Maloney (NZL) hangs on to third.
Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout (NED) are in top form after dominating the fleet in the breeze, they were able to pull out a good race to increase their lead while their direct opponent scored high points. “The level in this event is high and we knew that today would see some changes with the light wind. Despite a 15th in the first race we managed a good result in the second and keep our lead.” The Dutch are enjoying a solid lead over last year winners Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos (ESP) in second. French Camille Lecointre et Mathilde Géron climbed to third after a fourth and a first.
Despite mixed results scored by top ranked sailors, Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page (AUS) are conserving the lead in the 470 over the Coster brothers and Mantis/Kagialis. With two second places, Portuguese Marinho Alvaro and Miguel Nunes (POR) climbed to fifth. Regatta victories were taken by the Japanese duo Harada/Yoshida and Swedish Joonas and Niklas Lindgren.
In the 2.4, Damien Seguin (FRA) scored two victories to increase his lead to11 points over Helena Lucas (GBR) and Thierry Schmitter (NED) on equal points.
For others, the day didn't prove easy and the lighter conditions penalised the early leaders.
For Maja Dziarnwska (POL) the day was not ideal, the young Pole suffered from the tricky conditions placing 15th and 20th in the RS:X women. She loses the lead to French Charline Picon (FRA) who raced to perfection with two victories. “It has been a while since I sailed in these pumping conditions. It was very physical.” explained Picon. “We expect waves and breeze tomorrow, it will be technical but it can suit me!”
After three races in the Star and two won by Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR), the British take the first position from Canadians Richard Clarke and Tyler Bjorn. The Swedish team of Loof/Salminen win the last race to place third overall.
“We had a mixed bag- I guess overall it was a good day.” explains Percy. “We won two races but we should have won three – we certainly had the speed to but it got very patchy and light in the last race and we just got a bit unlucky on the last run and a group of three boats got past us which made it a little but frustrating to end like that. Overall, the good news is we’re really fast upwind – we’re struggling a little downwind which is unusual for us but we’re really fast upwind and that's a nice place to be after a couple of years of not having that.”
Athens Silver medallist Rafa Trujillo (ESP) takes the lead in the Finn class with a first and a second place. Deniss Karpak (EST) suffered from the tricky conditions and drops to second overall in front of Vasilyi Zbogar (SLO) who wins the last race.
It is tight at the top of the 49ers. After a long day and four races sailed in the Gold group, World champions Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (AUS) are in first place with two races win. They are on equal points with French Manu Dyen and Stéphane Christidis while Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes (GBR) lose two places to third. It is the first time in Hyères as a team for the Australians who are back into the competition after winning the ISAF Worlds in Perth.
The day delivered mixed results for the top girls in the Laser radial. ISAF World champion, Marit Bouwmeester (NED) gets to first place with Lijia Xu (CHN) in second. Earlier leader Alison Young (GBR) has found it tough today and scores high points to place third overall. The bullets go to World # 1 Evi van Acker (BEL) placed 5th and Tina Mihelic (CRO) 11th.
The results are getting close between the top three in the Sonar. The British John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas are taking the lead. Aleksander Wang Hansen, Per Eugen Kristiansen and Marie Solberg (NOR) win two races to place second. Bruno Jourdren, Nicolas Vimont-Vicary et Eric Flageul (FRA) are in third at only four points from the leaders.
It is a dual for the title in the Skud. Miami OCR winners Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch (AUS) are two points ahead Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell (GBR). They held a good lead over Americans Jennifer French and Jean-Paul Creignou.
The Women Match Racers had a long day trying to finish the round robins. At the end of the day and with some flights still to race, Anna Tunnicliffe and her team remain undefeated.
The Women Match Racers will be the first out to race at 8.30 am with the fleets starting earlier than scheduled at 10am.
The forecast is once again quite extreme for the fifth day of racing in Hyères with the Easterly bringing in big waves and strong winds.
sof.ffvoile.fr
US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider update (from Dana Paxton)
On day four of racing at French Olympic Sailing Week, light wind was a complete change from the previous three days’ 20-plus knots. US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider holds four top-10 positions: Jen French and JP Creignou third in the SKUD-18; Amanda Clark and Sarah Lihan fourth in Women’s 470; Mark LeBlanc is tenth in 2.4mR; and Paul Callahan, Tom Brown and Bradley Johnson are tenth in Sonar. In Women’s Match Racing, Anna Tunnicliffe’s “Team Maclaren” of Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi continued to go undefeated.
Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl finished the day’s racing with a 3rd in race 8. They’ll advance into the gold fleet, which is the top half division in the Men’s 470 fleet. They currently sit in 11th overall and will need to finish in the top 10 tomorrow in order to advance to Friday’s medal race.
“It has been a very windy event,” said Biehl “The first day went well for us. Generally it has been going well. We have been trying some new things and checking on our settings because we haven’t had this kind of wind for a while.”
Erik Storck and Trevor Moore won the first 49er race of the day and as they explained in their daily racing blog, “We were happy to notch a race win in our first race as US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider athletes today! This is a brilliant partnership, and we are thrilled to be a part of it.” See their their full report here.
In the Men’s RS:X windsurfer, Bob Willis has been struggling in the breeze, but working hard to harness the power. “It’s very hard to sail tactically sound and keep your head out of the boat when you’re focused on boat speed, which is our #1 priority,” said Willis. “In Hyeres, with the Mistral, it’s been really shifty, choppy and windy. For the most part I feel my speed has been really good, but I’ve had some issues with staying in phase, and my results indicate that.” Willis is currently in 26th.