SEIKO 49er & 49erFX Worlds at Marseille, France - Day 3
by Andy Rice 26 Sep 2013 20:50 BST
24-29 September 2013
Two bullets earn Maillot Jaune for French FX Team
Sarah Steyaert and Julie Bossard sailed a stunning third day of qualification, winning both of today's heats and moving to the top of the women's leaderboard at the Seiko 49er & 49erFX World Championships in Marseille. The former Laser Radial World Champion from La Rochelle moved to Marseille three months ago and the local knowledge showed today. Where most of the 53 teams could make little sense or pattern of the extreme light airs on the Mediterranean, somehow the French team found a consistency that no other crew came close to matching.
"Starting was really important," said Steyaert. "We did not do good starts the last two days, and it's important because it can be very 'go left' in these conditions. But today we thought the pressure was everywhere so we started close to the committee boat. We sailed well tactically, and we weren't so fast but we handled the waves OK, which are quite different from most places."
Olivia Price, Australia's match racing silver medallist from last year's Olympic Games, put in a good day with crew Caitlin Elks. "We didn't really get off the start line that well but we found some clear air and could start sailing our own race," said Price. "We picked up a few boats on the downwind, went round the starboard mark rather than most people going round the port mark." Their alternative downwind strategy served them well, and the GPS tracking revealed they had spent the least time sailing downwind, making the Aussies the Queens of the Downwind for the day.
Despite a good day, Price saw little rhyme or reason to the conditions. "It was very hard to see the wind on the water, you have to feel it on the boat and look at the boats round you." Price uses a sixth sense that she finds hard to explain, when 'feeling' the breeze. "If the boat doesn't want to accelerate you're not sailing in pressure. And you can't wait for the wind to come to you, you have to find it yourself."
Anika Lorenz agreed with Price's assessment. Although she and her helm Victoria Jurczok had to hand on the Seiko yellow jerseys to the French team now leading the series, the Germans had a good day even if they found the conditions very challenging. "Our first race was 7th and then a 5th," said Lorenz. "We had a problem with being late on the start, and had to catch some boats during the races. We couldn't start, but we could come from behind. We just look for pressure and try to catch it – there was no real strategy that worked all the time."
While Jurczok and Lorenz are starring in the FX, other members of the German squad are appearing to great critical acclaim in a 2013 update of iconic TV show Baywatch, currently airing on 49er.org (49er.org/blog/2013/09/26/redo-of-baywatch-by-the-german-49er-sailors). If the sailing career doesn't work out, Germany's 49er gods and goddesses have a bright future in the showbiz and glamour modelling industries.
With 28 nations represented in Marseille, there are race winners from around the world, with the Japanese FX women Chika Hatae and Noriko Okuma emulating their male compatriots' victory from yesterday with their own race win today.
The women now divide into Gold and Silver fleets, while the 97-boat men's 49er fleet moves through to the next stage. Today was a frustrating outing for the top 40 men who were divided into two groups of 20. Despite starting a race in very light airs, the breeze dropped too light to complete a heat for either group.
It was a missed opportunity for some teams in the 20s to climb up into the top 20 for Friday's Semi-Final. The Lübeck brothers from Denmark remain in 21st overall, tantalisingly close to moving up the standings. "A bit disappointing," said helmsman Mads, "but we couldn't do anything about it. We kind of missed the opportunity because we messed up the start, but of course now it doesn't count anyway. We just have to be prepared for tomorrow and stay in 21st place. Our goal is to hold that position, win the second fleet, and get back into the gold fleet on the day after."
A place behind in 22nd, Philipp Müller and Kilian Holzapfel were also sad to miss a chance to move up to gold fleet, although the German team has already exceeded its expectations for this regatta. "We were hoping for the top 40, so anything else is a bonus for us," said Müller. "We are happy."
British team Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign remain top of the standings and will wear the Seiko yellow jerseys going into the Semi-Finals, which will be live streamed on 49er.org from 11am local time on Friday. Straight afterwards the women will go into their Semi-Final, also going out live from Marseille.
49er.org/event/2013-world-championships
49er and 49erFX Worlds – Maloney and Meech climb, no racing for the men (from Jodie Bakewell-White, Yachting New Zealand)
After another extremely light wind day in Marseille only the women's 49erFX fleet 2013 49er and 49erFX World Championships managed to put any results on the board.
In the 49er Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski remain in 3rd with Peter Burling and Blair Tuke in 4th on equal points.
In the 49erFX New Zealand's Alex Maloney and Molly Meech have lifted their overall standing to lie in 7th overall at the end of day three. Today they placed 6th, 18th and 2nd in their three races sailed.
Coach, Hamish Willcox reports from Marseille; "There was no racing today, after a long wait for the 49er top 40 sailors. They were scheduled to race after the FX girls."
"Another light sea breeze day of 3-5 knots with chop and swell making conditions very stressful for sailors. Four races scheduled and none completed after a long day finishing at 1830. This means we miss the semi-finals and go straight to a twenty boat gold fleet finals tomorrow."
"Pete and Blair were in the purple vest today as the fastest downwind boat from yesterday. This is a bit like having the dotted shirt in the tour of France."
Racing runs for six days with the world titles for the Olympic skiff classes set to be decided on Sunday 29th September.
Light winds slow down racing at 49er and 49erFX World Championships (from Craig Heydon, Yachting Australia)
Light winds have limited racing on day three of the 2013 49er and 49erFX World Championships in Marseille, France.
The lack of breeze meant that just the 49erFX fleet managed to get some racing in, with the fleet completing two races in the light conditions.
Australia's Olivia Price and Caitlin Elks have moved up one position from their overnight 12th following a second and a ninth on Thursday.
"We had another light wind day today, with a lot of waiting around for the light sea breeze which came in around 3.30pm," said Price. "We got two races done to finish off the qualifying round with only six races.
"The course was pretty fickle and quite hard to pick the shifts off the water," she said. "The racing was tight but we were happy to come away with a second and a ninth.
"We also got awarded the 'Queen of the Downwind' bib to wear tomorrow which meant that we spent the least amount of time sailing downwind today," said Price. "Hopefully tomorrow brings a little more wind and it comes in earlier to get some good racing in."
Haylee Outteridge and Nina Curtis were the big movers on day three, working their way up from 36th to end the day in 17th.
Outteridge and Curtis were third in race one and eighth in race two, ending the day just 10 points off the top 10 heading into the finals series.
Fellow Australians Tessa Parkinson and Chelsea Hall are just one place further behind in 18th following a fourth and a 24th.
The 49er fleet was unable to complete any racing on Thursday meaning that Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen remain the top placed Australians in eighth overall.
Will Phillips and Rhys Mara are 32nd, with David Gilmour and Sam Phillips are 43rd, George Davies and Jack Lloyd are 55th, Luke Parkinson and Fang Warren are 69th and Peter Kendall and Harry Bethwaite are 81st.