British 49er & 49erFX crews ready to show their mettle at Santander Worlds

by Lindsey Bell, RYA 14 Sep 2014 14:20 BST 15-21 September 2014

Dylan Fletcher & Alain Sign in the 49er © Richard Langdon / British Sailing Team

European silver medal winner Alain Sign is forgetting the disappointment of last year's World Championship and is eyeing a podium finish this time around as he and Dylan Fletcher prepare for the start of the 49er competition at the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander on Monday (15 September).

The British Sailing Team duo had to settle for the 'leather' medal at last year's event in Marseilles, finishing fourth in what was still their best World Championship result to date.

But the 28-year-old crew Sign is taking heart from his and Fletcher's progress this season and their event preparations as they embark upon a new bid for Worlds silverware at the Spanish venue, and a chance to qualify the nation's spot in the 49er class for the Rio Olympics in the process.

In addition to European Championship silver, Fletcher and Sign won bronze at the Rio Olympic Test Event last month as well as podium places on the world tour events this season to be continually challenging at the front of the fleet.

"We're feeling pretty excited to get underway. We did most of our build up a couple of weeks ago where we did a training regatta and finished second in that, so that's gone pretty well," the Lee-on-the-Solent sailor explained.

"We don't really want to be thinking about the Worlds last year, we want to be thinking about what we can improve on this time, keep the ball rolling, just doing what we do best and hopefully at the end of the week we can come away with a performance that we can be proud of."

The pair know they'll have tough competition in the 89 boat fleet, from the likes of defending champions Peter Burling-Blair Tuke from New Zealand and Olympic Champions Nathan Outteridge-Iain Jensen, and from their own British teammates including John Pink-Stuart Bithell and Dave Evans-Ed Powys.

"I think for this event we'll be looking at what we do and focussing on that, sticking to our priorities and not try and change anything now just to try and beat them. We'll just do what we do."

"I think we've rounded pretty well over the season. We've got a bit better in the breeze and stuck to light as our favoured condition. We have strong starts and are good at boat on boat combat, and medal racing we're pretty smart on."

Sign is not fazed by the challenge, and knows what he wants out of the event.

"I think a medal – the gold one would be the best option! Coming away from here with a medal would be ideal for us and we can then really focus on our winter programme and move forward from there."

This Santander event marks only the second World Championships for the new women's 49erFX class, introduced for the Rio 2016 cycle.

The British Sailing Team's Frances Peters and Nicola Groves finished as the top British crew in eighth at that inaugural event, and the world number four-ranked pairing will be pushing to improve on that this time around.

Sophie Ainsworth described her first 49erFX Worlds where they suffered equipment breakage as 'disastrous' so will be equally keen to put on a strong showing with Charlotte Dobson in the women's skiff fleet.

Charlotte Dobson & Sophie Ainsworth in the 49erFX - photo © Richard Langdon / British Sailing Team

"We have made sure that we have changed any equipment in the build to the World Championships this time so fingers crossed we don't have quite as much of a nightmare."

"It's been a good year with Charlotte. We have now had a full year together to try and get some routines down. Last time we felt we weren't quite sure what we were doing all the time so we are feeling a bit more confident on our roles and we are really excited for our second World Championships."

"Over the last season the front runners have been the Brazilians, the Kiwis and the Danish. Sometimes we have been up there but have then had a few minor mishaps that have meant we just fell of the podium, so I would say they are our main contenders," explained the Chichester sailor, who also expects to see her British teammates Peters-Groves and Kate Macgregor-Katrina Best to be in the mix.

British contenders in the 49er and 49erFX classes:

49er
Dylan Fletcher / Alain Sign
John Pink / Stuart Bithell
Dave Evans / Ed Powys
Stevie Morrison / Chris Grube
Nic Asher / Fynn Sterritt
James Peters / Sam Batten
Dominic Burke / Chris Taylor
Jack Hawkins / Chris Thomas
Rory Hunter / Neil Hunter

49erFX
Charlotte Dobson / Sophie Ainsworth
Frances Peters / Nicola Groves
Kate Macgregor / Kat Best
Vikki Payne / Steph Orton

Racing in Santander sees a staggered schedule across the ten classes: