2024 49er, FX & Nacra 17 Junior World Championships at Vilagarcía de Arousa, Spain - Day 2
by Alexia Lahoud 19 Jul 2024 00:06 BST
17-21 July 2024
2024 49er, FX & Nacra 17 Junior World Championships © The International 49er Class
New Zealanders Sebastian Menzies and George Lee Rush maintain the lead in the 49er class and the French team of Titouan Petard and Thea Lubac are the leaders in the Nacra 17.
It was a long day on the waters of the Arousa estuary, where the 49er, 49er FX and Nacra 17 Junior World Championships continued racing on day 2 of the championship. The wind only appeared after 2pm for racing in a light SW breeze which proved quite unstable.
The blue and yellow 49er fleets were first to sail, completing two races during which New Zealand's Sebastian Menzies and George Lee Rush maintained their lead after scoring 2-8, the eighth becoming their discard.
Menzies and Lee Rush now have a four-point lead over second-placed Richard Schultheis and Youenn Bertin from Malta, who were third yesterday. The Dutch pair Wiebrand de Vos and Stijn Gast, who have only been sailing together for two weeks and are already showing a great performance, with a first and a third today to move up to third.
'Today has been a day where you have to keep your eyes out of the boat all the time because there is so much going on,' said de Vos. 'In the first race we got to the first and second mark in fifth position, but we saw that there was no pressure on the left side of the course and there was a big shift to the left as well, so we went on the right side. We rounded the next mark of the course in first position and we managed to hold on until the end,' he added.
On the race course off Rianxo, the Nacra 17 fleet sailed just one race, which was once again dominated by France. Thomas Prousty and Eloise Clabon won the race and they are now in second place tied on points with Titouan Petard and Thea Lubac, who became the new leaders after finishing in third place this afternoon. Clément Martineau and Adélie Bertin are in third place.
The 49er FX class didn't finish racing until 20h00 CEST, but got three good races as the wind improved into the evening hours.
With the results of the first two races of the day, the Spanish pair formed by Stella Enríquez and Marta Cardona (24-15) are provisionally in third place in the general rankings. Ahead, the Germans Katharina Schwachhofer and Elena Stoltze are the new leaders, while the Italians Sofia Giunchiglia and Giulia Schio are in second position.
The 49er, 49er FX and Nacra 17 Junior World Championship is organised by the Real FederaciónGalega de Vela (Royal Galician Sailing Federation) with the sponsorship of the Diputación de Pontevedra (County Council of Pontevedra), the Xunta de Galicia and the Concello de Vilagarcía de Arousa (City Council of Vilagarcía) with the support of the Port Authority and other brands collaborating in the event.