Tornado World Championships at Lake Garda

RACING DAY 1 – Bundock and Ashby on the lead

Great start for the 39 Tornados sailing the event on Lake Garda, in the waters surrounding the beautiful villages of Gargnano and Toscolano-Maderno.

Race 1 had beautiful conditions. A couple of individual recalls and the boats went off to provide the public with its usual show of speed, adrenaline and fast maneuvers. 12 knots, double trapeze and lots of fun.

Race 2 saw the wind dropping to lighter conditions but still good moments of double and single trapeze.

“Today was a great sailing day. The best sailing condition I had in the last 2 years”, said Darren Bundock. Darren and crew Glenn Ashby are leading the event after winning both races sailed today.

The first Tornado appearance in Italy has been 40 years ago when it won the Centomiglia del Garda in 1969 with crew Fabio Albarelli and Gianfranco Oradini.

The event has the support of the Council of the Regione Lombardia, the Province of Brescia, the Riviera dei Limoni, the Municipality of Toscolano-Maderno. Partenrs - "GreenComm Challenge" Lake Garda challenge for the America's Cup, "Aria" wi max in Italy”, the brand "Marina Yachting", "Green Wave" technology, district Lombard co sponsored by “Wave Group”.

RACING DAY 2 – Another 2 bullets for Bundock and Ashby

The light winds – 6-8 knots – did not stop Ozzies Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby to open even more their lead. The duo had to fight hard for the line honours on the second race though and stole it on the line. A nice Birthday present to Ashby!!

The racing area was moved to the north end of the lake and according to British sailor Paul Mines “it was a fantastic sight to see 17 Tornados being towed up behind the RC boat”.

The 39 Tornados from 11 different countries are supposed to be back racing on Wednesday at 08h00 if the wind conditions allow.

RACING DAY 3 –Bundock and Ashby unbeatable so far

The boats were all ready on the water for the scheduled 08h00 early start but the wind conditions did not help and they were all sent back to wait for the South breeze to come in.

The light conditions – 7-8 knots - only allowed one very challenging race to be sailed today. “Both sides of the course were working which was very unusual. Since we arrived here that is the first time the left was favouring as well”, explained Belgium Carolijn Brouwer.

The Russians lead the fleet throughout the first rounding but Bundock and Ashby took the lead over and never looked back. The wind dropped through the race and most of the fleet just finished inside the time limit.

Another early start is scheduled for tomorrow as a good North wind is forecasted.

RACING DAY 4 – Light winds prevail in Lake Garda

The forecasted North wind arrived early. But brought again light and tricky conditions for the Tornados. It was not a one way track and lots of possibilities for gains …and losses.

The Greek team of Paschalidis and Trigonis won the heat. “Both sides were giving good opportunities; you just had to get it right. And we did” said Trigonis. The Greeks are now 3rd overall.

Leaders Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby finished 9th, their discard, which still leaves them 7 points ahead of the Austrians.

Austrians Zajac and Czajka had another good and consistent race finishing 2nd and are still holding the 2nd overall position.

As the wind died the boats were sent to shore to wait for the afternoon breeze to fill in. But unfortunately it never arrived and racing was resumed for the day.

RACING DAY 5 – No wind, no races, no surprises

Even though an early start was scheduled for the last day of the 2009 Tornado Worlds the wind did not help and racing was not possible.

“We knew that the weather forecast wasn’t good for the last 2 days. So we feel really lucky that we had at least a race yesterday and we got it right. It proved to be critical to our result.” says Greek Trigonis Konstantinos, taking the 3rd position.

Austrians Thomas Zajac and Thomas Czajka, 2nd overall, had their best result ever in a Tornado World and are a promising young team.

“It is really great to be Vice World Champions. I had a really bad climbing accident in March and broke my back and ankles and spent 100 days in Hospital so for me it is a great triumph to be back sailing. It was a nice place to sail, but it’s a shame about the wind on the final days”, says Thomas Czajka

Leaders Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby added another World Title to the several existing: Bundock is now 7 times Tornado World Champion, 3 of them with crew Glenn Ashby. They are also 3 times F18 World Champions and Glenn Ashby is 6 times A-Class World Champion. No shortage of titles here!

Darren Bundock (AUS):

“It has been a fantastic week of sailing and undoubtedly some of the best in my sailing career. Lake Garda isI truly a special place for sailing with the cliff faces and picturesque scenery. The lake has not lived up to its reputation of strong wind this week but all the sailors have had a great time.

It’s still a fantastic feeling to win the Tornado Championships, its number 7 now. I think it may be quite a while till some one beats that. This year was different, no Olympic or funding pressures we just sailed because we love the boat and had a great time.

This week has made it clear for me.. I can announce my Olympic retirement, multihulls is my scene and love sailing. The 49er just does not do it for me.”

Glenn Ashby (AUS):

“A great week, yet a sad week for the Tornado Class to see an end of an era for the once Olympic multihull. We had fantastic sailing this week, it was nice to get back on the water and get the old team back together the first time since the Olympic medal race.

We have now won seven world sailing championships together and must be close to being Australia’s most successful sailing team.”

Carolijn Brouwer, 1998 ISAF Sailor of the Year, 2 times Laser Radial and 2 times Europe dinghy World Champion, and Jeroen Van Leeuwen (BEL) were 4th , followed by Russians Pavel Kalinchev and Sergey Dzhienbaev in 5th.

“ Four years ago I fell in love with Tornado sailing, this week I fell in love with Lake Garda. Although some difficult conditions, the RC did an excellent job in providing us with good fair racing. It was a great week. I am very happy to come 4th in this Championship not having sailed the Tornado since the Olympics and sailing with a new crew Jeroen. It was a great combination and great fun”, explains Carolijn, the retiring ITA President.

Roland Gaebler (GER), 2000 Sydney Olympics Bronze medallist and also the new elected ITA President:

“This Championship showed that we have an excellent mix of sailing legends and youth talent. We are very happy to see Thomas and Thomas (AUT) Vice World Champions behind the world’s best multihull sailors Darren & Glenn. But also seeing so many mixed teams shows that Tornado sailing is a sport for all”

Full results