Nacra 17, 49er and 49erFX Worlds at Clearwater, Florida - Day 1
by Nacra 17, 49er & 49erFX Worlds 10 Feb 2016 06:51 GMT
9-14 February 2016
Racing on day 1 of the Nacra 17, 49er & 49erFX Worlds in Clearwater, Florida © Jen Edney / EdneyAP
49er & 49er FX - Kiwis and Danes draw first blood in Clearwater
The grey morning sky introduced day one of the 49er and 49er FX 2016 World Championships. Even though the previous 2015 Worlds in Buenos Aires, Argentina was contested less than three months ago, the athletes are approaching this event with as much anticipation and earnest effort as ever before.
With the day slated to begin just before noon, the race committee decided to send out the men first. The breeze was a manageable 14 knots and, with the Nacra 17s also given the go-ahead, the men started rigging up on the beach. The men's 49er fleet took to the water, sailing from the Clearwater Community Center Beach out through a sometimes treacherous channel. When the wind decides to meet the waves, the result is a battle royale for the 49er fleet.
With building pressure from a manageable 14 knots to a ripping 18+, the 49er fleet kicked off the first race of their 2016 Worlds. It was a dramatic start in tough conditions. Irish sailors Mathew McGovern and Ryan Seaton were all smiles up until the top mark, but were more cautious downwind. "We were having a blast sailing up until that point. After we rounded, it clearly became dangerous to light it up and go real fast because then there's a good chance you'll be swimming. There's a fine line between being able to heat it up and gain speed, while still playing it safe."
Jonas Warrer and Anders Thomsen exemplified how even the most seasoned sailors were struggling with this challenging first race. The Danish pair got around the top mark in 2nd place, but then Warrer went for a bit of impromptu waterskiing on the downwind leg when his trapeze adjuster slipped out of its cleat, dunking the Danish skipper in the water. The 2008 Olympic Champion managed to recover his composure and dignity without capsizing, although he had dropped a few places with the minor mishap.
However, Warrer and Thomsen made amends on the next windward leg, spotting how skewed the course had become after the massive left-hand windshift. "We tacked earlier than some of the other boats in front of us," said Thomsen. "It doesn't pay you to overstand the layline in really strong winds, so we came in underneath them and took a few places back." They then held off from hoisting the spinnaker straightaway on the final run to the finish, sailing high before getting the kite up and blasting across the line in first place. The 2015 World Champions, Burling and Tuke, also charged through to win their half of the qualifying fleet, putting Denmark and New Zealand in an early tie for first. Rounding out the tie for third is Great Britain's Pink/Bithell and France's D'Ortoli/Delpech.
Over the course of the race, the pressure consistently mounted. The fleet just about made it across the finish line in one piece, it wasn't long before the race committee made the call to cancel the second start and send the racers in for an onshore postponement. The FX women waited on shore, keeping tabs on the building pressure. More and more, the women's FX fleet are erring on the side of caution, mindful of just how easy it is to break a mast in the shallow waters of Clearwater. Look up through the boat park and you may just find a beach ball or colorful flotation device taped securely to a top mast. These women know that capsizing in these conditions is a very likely possibility, so the old adage: better safe than sorry, seems like a good idea when it comes to break a mast, or not to break a mast. As the sailors made their way from the course back into the channel they learned early in the regatta that by dropping their mainsails they avoided capsizing in the treacherous channel. The opening to the channel leading into the racing area is particularly shallow, and shallow waters are the 49er's ultimate enemy. A total of six masts were snapped after today's boat-breaking conditions.
The women are scheduled to start racing at 11am tomorrow EST. Weather reports seem to appear a bit lighter for tomorrow, although it's unlikely we've seen the last of the big breeze this week.
Nacra 17 - Big shifts and big breeze blasts Besson to victory
It was a big and blustery opening race that kicked off the Nacra 17 World Championships today in Clearwater, Florida. The first race started in a fairly benign 11-12 knots, although the 43 crews probably had an inkling that something big was going to happen when the breeze suddenly shifted 30 or 40 degrees to the left with less than a minute to the start gun.
This played nicely into the hands of the defending World Champions Billy Besson and Marie Riou (FRA) who had been fighting hard for position at the left-hand of the start line. The French put the hammer down out of the line and tacked on to the layline for the top mark, and they never relinquished the lead. Somehow, even with the big wind shift, a number of the usual suspects still found their way to the front of the pack, with the Swiss team of Matías Bühler and Nathalie Brugger chasing the French around the track, coming in second ahead of the Spanish pair of Iker Martinez and Julia Rita.
As the race progressed, the breeze built and built, with the shallow waters of Clearwater kicking up a vicious, steep chop. This created perfect conditions for high-speed pitchpoling and it caught out a number of teams including the top Kiwi crew of Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders who came a cropper towards the bottom gate. "It's a shame because we like the big breeze normally," said Jones. "But we fell in twice today. Not good." The capsizes dropped the New Zealand duo out of the front pack and back to 25th at the finish.
The Australian team of Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin were one of a number of crews who had come down to the boatpark this morning to discover that some of their kit had either been damaged or disappeared altogether. Stormy winds and a high tide had washed the water high up the beach, with a few boats actually afloat on the shallow sands. Some teams' sails were buried below the sand, there was damage to some hulls, but for the Aussies their sail and equipment box had floated away completely. Fortunately it showed up in a marina further down the coast and Waterhouse was able to use his waterlogged equipment to notch up a 4th place finish.
With the breeze whistling up to over 20 knots, and the waves becoming more treacherous by the minute, the race committee was forced to abandon any further racing for the day. So only one race complete, and even then the results remain in doubt after some teams have submitted protest forms claiming that most of the fleet failed to go around the spacer mark at the top of the second windward leg.
The race committee had moved the windward mark to take account of the big wind shift, but most of the sailors failed to see the small spacer mark that had been situated nearby and assumed that there was no space mark at all. One coach commented: "The only reason why some of the boats towards the back of the fleet went round the spacer mark was because they couldn't bear away properly." The implication being that it was only boathandling incompetence that led to some boats going around the spacer mark by happy accident.
Tomorrow's forecast promises more moderate and manageable breezes, and the sailors will be hoping they will be able to catch up on the schedule and get some solid scores on the board.
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
Burling and Tuke open the 49er Worlds with a win (from Jodie Bakewell-White, Yachting New Zealand)
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have opened their 49er World Championship with a race win in the opening race of the regatta in Clearwater, Florida where three Olympic class sailing World Championship regattas got underway today in challenging conditions.
The 49er fleet, featuring close to 70 boats, sailed just one heat today in blustery, wavy conditions which increased as the day progressed. The women's 49erFX skiff fleet, now in the final build-up to their first ever Olympics, were scheduled to sail after the men today, but their racing was abandoned. One race was possible to open the 2016 Nacra 17 World Champs.
Taking the win in their first fleet race, Burling and Tuke share the early lead in the Championship with Denmark's Jonas Warrer and Anders Thomsen who took the gun in their heat.
"Today was day one of the 49er World Champs and it was a pretty big forecast last night," said Burling after reaching shore. "I think there was a fair bit of tension this morning as to whether we'd actually get out there for a race today because we've all seen how choppy and tricky it gets out there when the breeze gets up."
"We were really fortunate that it was light enough this morning to get out there for a race."
"We're really happy to take a win in that first race. We got off the line pretty well and managed to keep it upright," he continued. "I think a fair few guys were swimming and doing a fair bit of damage to their gear and we're really happy to get a solid one under our belt to start with."
Burling reflects on the significance of this event; "This is our World Champs in an Olympic year and the goal for us for the whole campaign is to try and get the gold in Rio. We've got a lot of little steps along the way, and we're trying a lot of things this week. It's good to check in and see how everyone is going."
Isaac McHardie and Trent Rippey, who are part of New Zealand's Aon Fast Track Squad, can be pleased with their first race; finishing 11th the young pair will be buoyed as they head into day two of racing against the world's best.
Meanwhile the women in the 49erFX skiff have to wait another day to get started. Alex Maloney explains, "We were held on shore waiting for men to finish, and then as conditions got worse they were sent in."
"Hopefully we start tomorrow!" she adds, eager to get racing.
Things in the Nacra 17 mixed gender multihull fleet are heating up as they build towards their Olympic debut, and racing got underway for them in Clearwater today too, with just one race possible in the trying conditions.
New Zealand has two boats entered. Aon Fast Track Squad sailors Olivia Mackay and Micah Wilkinson started strongly with an 11th place in the opening race, while NZL Sailing Team's Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders finished 25th.
Helm, Gemma Saunders talked about their day; "When the race started [the conditions] built up a lot and it shifted left, and the sea state came up and by the end of it waves were pretty much breaking over the top of us."
"It was a really crazy race, it didn't go so well for us, we had two spills which were very frustrating, but we had good speed so a lot of positives as well."
Speaking about their Road to Rio Saunders said, "We've been just off the podium for a long time, so we are really hoping to get on that podium in a few regattas before the Games so that we can hopefully be on the podium in the Games," Jones adds.
Sailing as one fleet throughout the regatta the Nacra crews' race results today are their overall standing as they head into day two of the regatta tomorrow.
Big breeze challenges crews on and off the water (from Cora Zillich, Australian Sailing)
The 2016 Nacra 17, 49er, and 49erFX World Championships kicked-off at Clearwater, Florida, USA overnight (Tuesday, 9 February 2016 EST local time) but only one race was completed in the 49er and Nacra 17 fleets.
Racing had to be cancelled after winds built from a manageable 14 knots up to a ripping 18+knots during race one, making for some dramatic conditions in the shallow waters of Clearwater Beach.
Nacra 17 World #1 Jason Waterhouse (NSW) and Lisa Darmanin (NSW) made the most of it and finished in fourth in the 35-boats fleet – quite an achievement in the challenging conditions and after the day had started out with extra hurdles to overcome before even making it on to the water.
The Australians were one of a number of crews who had come down to the boat park in the morning to discover that some of their kit had either been damaged or disappeared altogether after stormy winds and a high tide had washed the water high up the beach, with a few boats actually afloat on the shallow sands. Some teams’ sails were buried below the sand, there was damage to some hulls, but for Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin their sail and equipment box had floated away completely. Fortunately it showed up in a marina further down the coast and Waterhouse was able to use his waterlogged equipment to notch up a fourth place finish.
In the 49er, Olympic gold medallists Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW) started off with a 15th in the split fleet and are ranked 29th after day one in the 56-boats fleet. Australian Sailing Team’s David Gilmour (WA) and new crew Lewis Brake (QLD) finished fifth to sit in ninth place, while teammates Joel Turner (QLD) and new crew Tom Siganto (QLD) finished the race in 12th and are ranked 23rd.
Over the course of the race, the pressure consistently mounted and the fleet just about made it across the finish line in one piece and the race committee made the call to cancel the second start. The FX women waited on shore and never made it out on day one.
“When we got out there this morning it wasn’t too bad and around 15 knots at the start of the race. During the race the breeze built a little bit more and the waves got a big bigger. After the race finished it got pretty hairy and it built up to about 25knots and huge waves. So it was a good idea to call it and send everyone in. We were lucky not to break any gear and I think everyone who didn’t today was very lucky.” Joel Turner said about the conditions.
“We had a pretty good race with Dave (Gilmour), who finished fifth. We were in front of them at some stage but they managed to sail past us and we finished twelfth, so it wasn’t too bad. We’ re a bit behind schedule now, so I assume they will put on extra races over the next few days. Tomorrow could be another write-off with still plenty of breeze forecast and I think the sea state will stay around for a while and cause a bit of drama,” Joe Turner added.