Podium finish for 8 strong GBR team at the Silver Cup
by British Finn Association 6 Sep 2018 21:10 BST
Finn fleet at Silver Cup © Robert Deaves
The British contingent of eight young Finn sailors at the U 23 World Championship in Koper, Solvenia last week were by far the biggest national team - underlining the UK's strength in depth in the ultimate single hander.
All seven members of the GAC Pindar squad were joined by the British Sailing Team's Hector Simpson, who has been training with the BFA squad over the past two years.
The first day saw the team off to a flying start, in a very unstable north-easterly Bora wind, with shifts of 40-50 degrees all day long. Race one got away first time and was decided on the first left shift on the first beat, leaving those on the right struggling to catch up. Cameron Tweedle (GBR 98) led the group on the left and just rounded ahead of the current European U23 champion, Nils Theuninck (SUI) and Jock Calvert (AUS). The battled continued on the second upwind with Theuninck getting the better of Tweedle to round ahead and lead down to the finish. Eventually Teply rounded the gate ahead to take third, behind Cameron – his best ever result in second.
The race was proof of the progress made by the British team under Coach James Hadden, with Hector Simpson recording a tenth place, followed by James Skulczuk (GBR 81) in thirteenth and Callum Dixon (GBR 38) in fourteenth of the 36 boat fleet.
The second race took several hours to get away, the first attempt being abandoned half way up the first beat because of another large windshift. It was finally started after a long wait and then two general recalls. The wind was fighting from left to right with huge pressure changes to match and boats played snakes and ladders with the changes. Cameron Tweedle finished the day with a solid 10th to add to his 2nd place, but the rest of the team struggled in the tricky conditions, with Hector next best in 20th.
By day three Hector Simpson had found his pace to win the day after taking three second places. He moved up to fifth overall, while Ondrej Teply (CZE) extended his lead at the top to 10 points. Joan Cardona (ESP) also had a good day after three good finishes to move up to second, while Nils Theuninck narrowly held onto third after a day of mixed fortunes.
Markus Bettum (GBR 703) enjoyed his best day of the week in the light and shifty breeze, scoring a 11,21,9 and new squad member Dan Patten (GBR 45) a consistent day with a 24,23,24.
Thursday saw a race win each Ondrej Teply and Joan Cardona recorded the best scorelines of the day to set up a last day showdown for the world title. As usual the day started very hot and sunny with a postponement to wait for the sea breeze. When it arrived it was the strongest of the week with free pumping in the first race, but it then dropped in the second and third races, as well as shifting right, though it was still generally a left hand track all day long, with plenty of tacking practice up the shoreline - for the lads to admire the scenery!
For the final race, the breeze shifted right with the top marks further out in the bay, but the leaders still emerged from the left. The battle for supremacy was in full swing with Cardona rounding a boatlength ahead of Teply, with Theuninck not far behind. Teply moved ahead downwind and then extended over the final two legs for a comfortable win to take an eight-point lead into the final day. Oskari Muhonen was briefly in second, but Cardona passed him on the final downwind to take second with Hector Simpson climbing to third to end a second outstanding day.
That proved to be the final race of the championship - while the race committee tried valiantly to put on Friday's races, the wind just was not playing the game and shifted through 120 degrees all day. It ran almost to the time limit until they admitted defeat and sent the fleet back to the club.
A protest between two other boats lifted Hector Simpson one place, enough to secure him bronze and a place on the podium after turning his regatta around after the first two days and a strong improvement from ninth in 2017.
"I picked up 50 points over the first two days and then somehow with the discard ended up on 48, so have come away with bronze, which was the most I could have hoped for after the way my first day went."
"It was a really good competition Everyone had some big scores apart from Ondrej and Joan, who managed to put a really consistent series together and they came away with gold and silver, so consistency was really the key this week, staying out of the wind holes and getting off the start line."
"It was probably the most tense it's ever been on the water for me. It was going left and right, three knots, 10 knots and about three starts and a general recall - it was super close behind me with about four or five sailors within five points, so I had not much to gain but a lot to lose."
Will Pattern, supporting the GAC Pindar team on the water reported on the week: "It was very tricky conditions, with good and bad races - but all sailed exceptionally well. Lots of current and past Olympians coaching the young sailors - a very high level of sailing.'''
And on the British Team: "They all sailed their socks off and helped and support each over - really incredible to see."
We caught up with some of the GAC Pindar team on the final day, click on the video clips below to hear their experiences:
Cameron Tweedle
Dugal Wilson
Dan Patten
James Skulczuk
Final top five results and GBR placings:
1 CZE 5 Ondrej Teply 24
2 ESP 26 Joan Cardona 33
3 GBR 96 Hector Simpson 48
4 SUI 1 Nils Theuninck 49
5 FIN 8 Oskari Muhonen 54
13 GBR 98 Cameron Tweedle 114
17 GBR 81 James Skulczuk 126
23 GBR 703 Markus Bettum 153
29 GBR 38 Callum Dixon U19 190
33 GBR 45 Dan Patten U19 212
34 GBR 83 George Coles U19 215
36 GBR701 Dugal Wilson 252
Find full results here