GBR Cadet Team at the Cadet World Championship at Krynica Morska, Poland - Overall
by Alistair McKewan & Andrew Nunn 7 Aug 2019 10:41 BST
28 July - 4 August 2019
Team GBR at the Cadet Worlds - Final Day
The last day of the Cadet Worlds started with clear skies and a gentle 5 knot breeze, as the 62 boats in the Worlds Fleet sailed out from Krynica Morska harbour. However, within 10 minutes from starters orders this changed 5-10 knot gusts as the sea breeze tried to fill in. Throughout the three races large holes appeared on the course making consistent results extremely tricky.
The race committee had set the race 10 course with a pin end bias, with the obligatory black flag and the fleet made a clean start to the race with no boats BFD.
Once off the line the fleet spilt into two either sailing on a big port or starboard tack to the first windward mark going up the right hand side of the course paid off with the fleet now lead by RUS9686, with Katie Yelland/Dom Rowell 10002 being the first GBR boat to round the mark. At the second windward mark the fleet was considerably more spaced out with 8352 Cally Terkelsen/Pippa Smith now leading the GBR team rounding the mark in 8th place.
Past the mark the leaders sailed to the right of the course found a shift in the wind which opened a significant gap between them and the trailing pack, which was maintained until the close of the race. Cally & Pippa ended with a 10th place followed closely by Katie & Dom in 13th.
1st place was POL9902 who chose the correct side of the course on each beat, the ideal option being right, left, right whilst keeping a close eye on any shifts and pressure changes as this indicated a move towards the right of course was needed.
Race 11 started with a change in the race committee's strategy, deciding to switch to a committee boat bias for the start. Unfortunately this was met with confusion by the whole fleet, with at least 75% of them being unable to stay behind the line, so the AP flag was raised and the sequence restarted.
After a further delay, Race 11 finally got under way with the black flag raised just as the wind, which had been consistent up to this point, dropped away. This let those sailors who enjoy lighter winds take to the front and Ben Goult/ Alex McEwan found themselves the first GBR boat away and from the line were challenging the leading Russian for position on the water. By the first windward mark GBR10051 Ethan Davey/ Alex Enkel had moved into 1st place round the mark having started in the middle of the fleet and worked hard to carve their way through.
At the second windward mark the wind again dropped requiring very technical sailing to make any headway in these difficult and shifting conditions, Ethan and Alex were still up with the leading pack but had dropped to 4th with Ben and Alex dropping to 13th. The final beat up to the finish was especially frustrating, with many of the boats changing positions more than once as they tacked repeatedly to gain advantage.
Race 11 ended up being a true game of snakes and ladders, the eventual winners being those who were able to find some clear air and a lane to make best use of it, the losers finding changing pressure and shifting winds making it increasingly impossible to keep to any sort of plan. Race 11 was won by AUS9747 who made huge gains on the second beat coming from outside the top 10.
Race 12 - the final race of the Worlds - became a hunt for clear air from the start with Cally and Pippa moving swiftly out with the leaders. At the second windward the GBR boats had been forced out of the top 20 places and still could not find a way to counter the conditions. All the team hung on grimly to complete the course with Ethan and Alex finishing 35th as the top GBR boat. Race 12 was eventually won by the light wind specialist RUS9686 Kristina Valisyeva.
The top of the leader board was ultimately a shoot-out between Australia, Belgium, Poland, Russia and Argentina with the top 2 placings only being decided on the last leg of the final race. In a high-scoring series, it was consistency rather than race wins that decided the victor. Congratulations to Julian Finsterbusch and crew Franco Barone of Argentina, who put an excellent series together and were worthy winners in the end.
Worlds Fleet Overall Results: (top five)
1st ARG 9988 Julian Finsterbusch / Franco Barone (51pts)
2nd BEL 10055 Thibaud Dirix / Thomas Winand (55pts)
3rd POL 9602 Pawel Kajeta / Tymoteusz Roszkowski (71pts)
4th RUS 9686 Kristina Vasilyeva / Elena Eliasina (73pts)
5th AUS 9618 Hugo Allison / James Gough (76pts)
Team GBR Placings
11th GBR 10051 Ethan Davey / Alex Enkel
14th GBR10012 Lia Fletcher / Kali Karaskas
21st GBR10002 Katie Yelland / Dom Rowell
27th GBR10004 Phoebe Bradshaw / Rhona Enkel
28th GBR8352 Cally Terkelsen / Pippa Smith
29th GBR9983 Hazel Whittle /Gwen Thorogood
43rd GBR9984 Ben Goult / Alex McEwan
Full Results of the 2019 Cadet Worlds Here
Team GBR in the Cadet Worlds Promotional Fleet - Final Day
There was all to play for going into the final day of the 68-boat Promotional Regatta Fleet, with as many as 5 teams still in with a chance of winning overall. The second discard was to come in to play after race 10, which would rid certain boats of their dreaded BFD scores.
One such boat in this position was GBR10001 Toby Bush/Kemmel Thorogood who blitzed the first race with an astonishing first beat, to eventually win by a country mile from a posse of chasing Polish and Belgian teams. POL9847 came in 2nd to bolster their chances, having won race 9 the previous day. Overnight leader POL9433 Franciszek Rutkowsk could only score 10th and top placed GBR boat Daisy Nunn / Oscar Bush scored 7th after recovering from a disastrous start when they missed the pin and had to gybe out of trouble. This meant that Toby/Kemmel had risen into the overall lead now that their 2nd BFD was discarded.
Race 11 started again under the black flag and with heavy pin end bias and this time is was POL9847 leading at the first windward with the GBR pair Toby / Kemmel and Daisy / Oscar struggling mid-fleet. POL9847 Franciszek Rutkowsk completed an emphatic race win to move into first place overall, while Toby/Kemmel were frustrated in the shifty conditions to finish 19th which effectively ended their chances of a podium place. Daisy/Oscar fought back to score 8th to keep their series alive, only a few points behind the leader going into the final race.
Yet another black flag start for Race 12 as a massive bundle at the pin ensued, while the top two boats could be seen one behind the other in the middle of the startline as the gun went. GBR9994 pulled away and hit the left side of the course, eventually rounding the windward mark in the lead, with four Polish boats chasing from behind, including POL9847. Daisy and Oscar extended their lead to take the win and we waited to see where POL9847 would finish but they were down in the teens at the finish - in fact we then learned POL9847 had been BFD in Race 12 which took them way down the placings since this was their 3rd BFD!
So Daisy Nunn & Oscar Bush secured the overall win, meaning the Worlds Promo Fleet had been won again by a GBR Team for the 5th time in the past 6 years. GBR had 4 boats in the top 10, including GBR9985 Olivia Gowland/Hettie Thorogood in 4th who were incredibly consistent, scoring nothing higher than a 10th place.
Worlds Promotional Fleet: (top five)
1st GBR9994 Daisy Nunn / Oscar Bush (43pts)
2nd POL9433 Franciszek Rutkowski / Jan Kopyra (58pts)
3rd POL10074 Piotr Cendrowski / Adam Rutkowski (68pts)
4th GBR9985 Olivia Gowland / Hettie Thorogood (77pts)
5th AUS9913 Milli McDonald / Emma Suda (82pts)
Other GBR Placings
6th GBR9977 Sam Goult / Sarah McKewan
8th GBR10001 Toby Bush / Kemmel Thorogood
12th GBR10003 Libbie Bush / Amelia Mayhew
46th GBR9576 Ed Fletcher / Charlie Bailey
54th GBR8852 Tristan Whittle / James Bailey
Full Results of the Cadet Worlds Promotional Regatta Here
Off the water for the final time in this World championships, the focus turned to Prizegiving and then the traditional swapping of competitor shirts. Here the GBR Team came out clearly as one of the winners with our shore kit being in great demand by all the other national teams so thanks must go to the Cauliflower group for all their hard work.
Our thanks must go to our fantastic Team GBR coaches Ben Hazeldine for the Worlds and Angus Collingridge for the Promos. Team GBR would like to extend their thanks their on-the-water clothing provider and Cadet Class sponsor Zhik for all their support in making them the best dressed Team out on the race track!
Our memories of Poland being wins, losses, a few capsizes but overall the great welcome we had and a true recognition of the superb effort from the organisers and their teams, without which the regatta would not have been such a success. We now look forward to the 2020 Cadet World Championships, to be held in Melbourne, Australia.