Sail Melbourne Invited Classes - A pathway to the Olympics
by ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne 13 Dec 2013 14:54 GMT
1-8 December 2013
Racing has been staged in 12 invited classes at the Sail Melbourne regatta, held in conjunction with the ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne 2013.
The classes sailed are mostly international classes, which are common sailing pathways to the Olympic classes. The inclusion of these feeder classes in the event, provides a great opportunity for young sailors in particular, to rub shoulders with their Olympic heroes in the boat park, many of whom had during their earlier sailing careers had sailed this classes. Competitors hail from around Australia, with a number of international sailors also competing.
29er
Six races have been sailed in the 29er, an ISAF Youth Worlds class intended as a trainer for the Olympic 49er and 49erFX. It is notable that both the London 2012 49er Gold Medallists, Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, have been on the podium in world championships in the 29er class.
The class attracted a fleet of 22 boats, crewed by a mix of male and female crews, in the two-handed, single trapeze boat. Winners were the Australian crew of Kurt Hansen and Harry Morton, who won three of the six races sailed. They sailed a very consistent series, having a worst placing of third in the fleet. Also consistent were the second place getters Charlie Wyatt and Tom Signato (AUS), who counted a string of top three places in their final score.
420
A second ISAF Youth Worlds class, the 420 – also a single trapeze two hander, which is intended as a preliminary boat for the Olympic 470 class, was also raced 24 teams at the event. The World Sailor of the year and London Olympic 470 Gold Medallist Matt Belcher, is a former 420 World Champion.
In this year's 420 series, the Australian crew of Will Boulden and Nic Gale were convincing winners. Sailing in a 24 boat fleet they scored a hat trick of wins, topped off with a second place, in the back end of the seven race series.
The second placed crew of Nia Jerwood and Lachlan Gilmour (AUS) won three races but a disqualification for a starting infringement meant the crew had to count a ninth place in their final score. Third overall was Klaus Lorenz and James Hodgson (AUS).
International Optimist
With the Australia titles looming in Melbourne, a big fleet of 104 sailors competed in the Optimist class, the biggest junior single hander in the world.
At the London Olympics a survey was conducted finding that some 70% of the competing Olympic sailors had sailed Optimists early in their careers.
South Australian sailors won two of the top three places overall, competitors from six Australian states attended the event.
Overall winner, Alexander Higgins (SA) got off to an excellent start with a hat trick of wins followed by a pair of seconds in the tail of the series. But he could only manage a 3 point advantage over Jayden Dalton (WA), with Matt Meaney (SA) a further three points further back in third. Two competitors finished one point behind and had to have a tiebreaker applied to determine fourth place.
Laser 4.7
The Laser 4.7 attracted a fleet of 28 competitors all from Australia. With nine races sailed, Tyrone Gowans was a convincing winner by a margin of 20pts from Hamish Wiltshire (AUS), a further 12pts back.
Gowans won three races and turned in a very consistent card, with three wins, three seconds, a third and a fourth, and was a convincing winner of the series.
Men's Laser Radial
Four competitors from New Zealand competed in the Laser Radial, in a Men only fleet, with the female 4.7 sailors all competing in the ISAF World Sailing Cup Melbourne. The New Zealanders all finished in the top eight with best placed, Trent Rippey finishing third overall.
The event attracted a fleet of 29 boats and was won by Tristan Brown (AUS), the 2012 and 2013 Laser Radial Men's World Champion won six of the nine races sailed, to take the Gold medal by a massive 20 point margin,,from Ben Franklin (AUS), with Rippey eight points behind in third.
Kiteboards
After the Kiteboards were initially selected and then dropped for the 2016 Olympics, they have been included in ISAF World Sailing Cup events, before the issue is reconsidered for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Many of the 26 strong fleet from six countries, will be heading directly across to Perth to compete in the Oceanic Course Racing Championships.
International crews dominated the top three places overall in the Kiteboards, and also won the Women's event.
Germany's Florian Gruber, the 2013 World Champion Kite-board Course racer, won 11 of the 12 races sailed.
He was disqualified from Race 5 for a starting infringement, and with three discards allowed in the series, also achieved the rare distinction of discarding two wins, for his points counted over his best nine races.
Despite that superlative performance, Gruber only won by nine points from Riccardo Leccese (ITA) who counted a string of top three places for his points score.
Alejandro Hernandez (ESP) was third overall, eight points behind Leccesse.
Ric Black was the top Australian, in the Men's event, finishing fifth overall, 40 points behind Gruber. Of the other international competitors, Ejder Ginyol (TUR) finished sixth overall, with Brad Walker and Leslie Bore, both from New Zealand, placing 11th and 12th overall.
In the Women's event Nuria Goma dominated the racing during the qualifying races, where she won eight of the ten races sailed and finished second in the other two. Unfortunately for the Spaniard an upset in the medals race allowed her nearest competitor, Lisa Hickman (AUS) to steal the gold medal away. Third place was taken out by a second Australian, Natalie Clarke, who was over the moon to be on the podium at a World Cup event.
Viper Multihull
Two international crews competed in the six-boat Viper catamaran event. The Viper was a contender in the ISAF trials to select the new Mixed Multihull for the 2016 Olympics, in which the Nacra17 was the preferred boat. Interestingly, the winning skipper in the Nacra 17 class at the 2013 ISAF Sailing World Cup in Melbourne Darren Bundock was successfully campaigning a Viper before mounting his Rio campaign in the Nacra 17.
Overall winner, and winner of six of the 12 races sailed were father and son James and 13 year old Riley McDonald. They turned in a very consistent scorecard of all top three places for their total points score. The McDonalds won by a 10-point margin from fellow Australians, Jack Felsenthal and Gavin Reitman, with Tat Choi Fung and Yu Ting Chan (HKG) a further 11 points back. The Hong Kong crew performed well in the last five races of the regatta, recording a string of three wins and two seconds.
The New Zealand crew of Alisanne Green and Mark Stitchbury-Cooper were one point back in fourth overall in the six boat fleet.
International Cadet
In the English designed International Cadet class, Thomas and Sophie Alexander (AUS) were overall winners sailing in a 12-competitor fleet. Second overall were Louis Schofield and Peter Allan who pulled up on the final day with a win and a second placing.
Third overall was an all-girl crew of Emily Patching and Isobel Royle, who trailed by 3 points. The crew lying second overall overnight, Julian Sasson and Phillip George dropped back to fourth overall, after failing to finish Race 8, and had to use that place as their discard in the final results.
OK Dinghy
Four international competitors, from New Zealand and Romania, sailed in the OK Dinghy event, which attracted a fleet of 27 boats for the singlehanded, Scandinavian design, which is similar to the Olympic Finn class. Mike Williams (AUS) was the eventual overall winner after being tied overnight with compatriot Mark Jackson. Williams went out in style winning the final race, with Jackson failing to finish – sealing his fate on the points table
Mark Skelton (AUS) was third. New Zealand's Russell Page-Wood was the best-performed international finishing 11th overall, with two compatriots Gary Lokum and Peter Lynch in 17th and 18th places respectively, and George Solonari (ROM) finished 23rd overall, after a string of mid and late teen finishes.
Hansa Liberty
Eight disabled competitors sailed in the singled handed Liberty class, which was won in a very convincing manner by Bob Schahinger (AUS), who won all seven races sailed and achieved the rare distinction of having to discard a win in his final point-score.
Jocelyn Neumueller (AUS) placed second overall, after finishing in the top three in all but one of the races she counted in her total points score. Lachlan Clear (AUS) finished in third place overall.
Minnow
These little dinghies with their unique blue sail have started the careers of many sailors, including Sarah Blanck, three times World Champion – ISAF Youth World Championship 1995, Laser Radial World Championship 1997 and Europe Dinghy World Championship 2002) - and dual Olympian in the Laser Radial Class.
A tiebreaker had to be applied to determine the final result in the singlehanded Minnow class at Sail Melbourne.
After six races, Kieran Schortz from Darwin Sailing Club and Melbourne sailor James Hackett, finished with an identical points score and identical places, meaning that officials had to get down to a second method of breaking the tie, which is to award the championship to the competitor who beat the other in the final race.
Schortz finished third in the final race, with Hackett blotting his copybook with a start line infringement – determining the outcome of the regatta. Laura Harding (AUS) finished third and was the first female in the 29-competitor fleet.
For full results and updates see www.sailingworldcupmelbourne.com