Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships - Day 11
by Richard Palfreyman 13 Dec 2011 14:27 GMT
3-18 December 2011
Strong afternoon offshore winds of 20 knots or more proved a challenge for sailors on Day 11 of the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships, with 10 capsizes in the 49er class and the withdrawal of Star Olympic champions Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson on Tuesday.
Star
Percy and Simpson were forced to withdraw from the day’s races and say they may not sail again at the Perth 2011 ISAF World Championships.
Percy had been suffering back pain after Monday’s races but was determined to finish the first race today. However, when he and Simpson received their second yellow flag of the regatta, Percy was brought to shore for treatment.
Simpson said: “We had an okay run, but Iain hurt his back and was in tears. It looks like it’s his lower back, but we don’t know yet. No way could we have raced the second race.”
“It’s frustrating; sadly this is the second event in a row Iain has injured himself. He injured his ankle last time,” he said. “I guess we won’t be sailing, but we never rule anything out.”
Shortly after the race, Percy said on his Twitter account: “My back fully went today half way through the first race. Unfortunately the end of the championships and the beginning of a few weeks of physio.”
On the penalty that ended their race, Simpson said: “Sadly we picked up a yellow flag and we don’t know why – we’re still confused.”
Race 5 was won by Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki (POL), who led for the entire course. Closely behind in second place were 2008 silver medallists Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA) who were well clear of Germany’s Johannes Polgar and Markus Koy in third.
In the sixth race, Scheidt and Prada had to settle for another second place after crossing the finish line just two seconds behind Swedish pair Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen. Coming in third and with only one second separating them from the Brazilians were Kusznierewicz and Zycki.
After six races, Scheidt and Prada move into first position overall. Mendelblatt and Faith (USA) and Kusznierewicz and Zycki (POL) trail the Brazilians by only one point.
Star racing is scheduled to continue on Wednesday from 1300 local time on the Leighton course.
Laser
Laser world champion Tom Slingsby (AUS) has set himself apart from the rest of the fleet with three wins out of four races in competition at the ISAF Worlds in Perth.
Under ominous skies and on a day where one race went for 10 minutes before it was restarted because of a significant 20-degree wind shift, Slingsby was like lightning, streaking away from the fleet.
“I actually sailed well today. The first race was crazy. There was probably 10 knots difference around the course with pressure and at times I looked really good, then really bad.
“I was lucky coming into the top mark. I might have been 15th but got a nice left-hander right at the top and somehow got into second. Then the leader got a yellow flag on the run and it allowed me to get into the lead.”
Slingsby was the only double winner and sits alone on single figures with nine points while his closest rivals are British sailors Paul Goodison (18 points) and Nick Thompson (19 points) and Germany’s Simon Groteluschen (19 points).
World number two Nick Thompson, had to be content with shadowing Goodison in race four for second place, after finishing eighth in race three.
Jean Baptiste Bernaz (FRA), who scored a second and 10th today, sits in equal fifth place with Sweden’s Johan Wigforss.
With six races contested in the three fleets today, Slingsby covered the Blue Fleet; Goodison and Australia’s Tom Burton dominated Yellow fleet; while Rutger van Schaardenburg (NED) and Pavlos Kontides (GRE) won in the Red fleet.
Laser competition is scheduled to continue on Wednesday from 1200 local time on the Parmelia course.
Women’s Match Racing
Women’s Match Racing was charged with excitement and devastation in equal measures on Tuesday as places in the quarterfinals and the London 2012 Olympic Games Sailing Competition were finalised with the end of Stage 2.
It was an important day for all teams in the repechage round robin and perhaps a night of celebration for elated teams from Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Portugal, who all secured a place for their country at the Olympic sailing competition at Weymouth and Portland next July.
Stephanie Hazard (NZL-1) and her crew got through early in the day after just two matches and were pleased with their performances despite being beaten by ESP-1. A close win against USA-2 in the last lap secured their spot.
Sweden’s Anna Kjellberg and her crew got their country an Olympic place after beating Portugal and Denmark (DEN-1).
It was a nail biting finish as the final place in the Olympics was decided in the very last match of the day. Screams of delight came from the stand when the Portuguese team realised they had succeeded, thanks to Nicky Souter (AUS-1) beating Finland.
Winds were up to 20 knots and shifty in a south easterly breeze for most of the day. It confused some of the skippers, with Nicky Souter making a mistake which cost her second place in the quarterfinals.
Souter (AUS-1) and Olivia Price (AUS-2) were neck and neck on points up to the second last match in the race for quarterfinal berths, until a mistake by Souter in her penultimate match against Great Britain.
She finished the match one lap too soon, putting Price ahead of her on points and in second place in the quarterfinals. Souter now faces world champion Anna Tunnicliffe (USA-1) in the quarters, while Price is up against Russia.
There was also confusion over the winner of the match between Germany (GER-1) and Netherlands (NED-2) when both teams followed the wrong course and then corrected their mistake without stopping.
A discussion by Race Committee umpires late in the afternoon found that the match still counted and awarded Silke Hahlbrock (GER) with the point as they had crossed the line in first place.
Women’s Match Racing is scheduled to continue on Wednesday at 1000 local time on the Harbour course.
49er
After a hard day of dramatically fluctuating winds and more than 10 capsizes in the racing, Denmark’s Peter Kruger Andersen and Nicolai Thorsell are the overall leaders at the end of the second day of competition for the 49ers at the ISAF Worlds.
Erik Storck and Trevor Moore (USA) finished first in race 4 for the Yellow fleet, crossing the line 21 seconds ahead of Santiago Silveira and Philipp Umpierre (URU), who placed second.
Race five saw Allan Noerregaard and Peter Lang (DEN) win comfortably with David Evans and Edward Powys (GBR) second and Storck and Moore with another good race in third place.
After a complicated start with several boats called back to the line, Kruger Anderson and Thorsell (DEN) took out the sixth race a massive 101 seconds ahead of Jonathan Ladha and Daniel Inkpen (CAN), with Storck and Moore again in third place.
The first race of the day for the Blue fleet saw wind speeds soar to 23 knots in the last leg of the race which allowed Australia’s Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen to maintain the lead for the entire race, crossing the line 42 seconds ahead of Emil Toft Nielsen and Simon Toft Nielsen (DEN).
Outteridge and Jensen had another win in race 5, with the Nielsen brothers once again finishing shortly behind by a mere 11 seconds.
Wind changes caused huge dramas in the last race of the day resulting in constant course alterations, but this did little to hinder Stephane Christidis and Emmanuel Dyen (FRA) who crossed the line first, 21 seconds ahead of Will and Sam Phillips (AUS).
Favourites to win the last race, Outteridge and Jensen struggled from the start and ended up finishing 13th.
The 49er competition is scheduled to continue on Wednesday from 1200 local time on the Owen course.
Men’s RS:X
Israel’s Nimrod Mashich heads the leader board after four races in the Men’s RS:X event with two top ranked Polish sailors, including the world number one, just four points behind.
The second day of racing began with Dorian van Rijsselberghe (NED) leading a good distance ahead of the Blue fleet in race 3, until a lapse led him off track. Dropping from a clear first place down to seventh after the third marker, he wound up in 15th position
The race went to Zachary Plavsic (CAN), the first win at the Perth 2011 World Championships for the Canadian RS:X team.
Rijsselberghe redeemed himself in race 4 however, coming first, 15 seconds ahead of Tom Ashley (NZL). Piotr Myszka was third.
In the Yellow fleet, Poland’s Prezemyslaw Miarczynski won race 3. However Nimrod Mashich (ISR) maintained his overall number one position by placing second and winning race four.
The Men’s RS:X event is scheduled to continue Wednesday from 1230 local time on the Centre course.
Women’s 470
Spain’s Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos have wrapped up the second day of competition in Women’s 470 with wins in races three and four to claim top position overall.
Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout (NED) held on to their second place overall, while Japan’s Ai Kondo and Wakato Tabata slipped from first to third in the fleet standings.
After a number of changes at the front of the fleet early in race three, it was Pacheco who managed to hold on to the lead as they rounded the sixth and final mark before the finish.
Italy’s Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol (ITA) finished second, Penny Clark and Katrina Hughes (GBR) third, followed by Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke (GER) fourth, while Yuka Yoshisako and Noriko Okuma (JPN) rounded out the top five.
Great Britain’s Clark and Hughes led the pack from the start in race four, followed closely by Israel’s Gil Cohen and Vered Buskila as they rounded the first mark.
But as the race ended, it was the Spaniards who again managed to get over the line for the win.
In Race 4, Israel’s Cohen and Buskila finished second, Westerhof and Berkhout (NED) third. They were followed by Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata (JPN) in fourth and Camille Lecointre and Mathilde Geron (FRA) in fifth.
The Women’s 470 competition is scheduled to continue on Wednesday from 1430 on the Success course.
Day 11 Highlights Video:
www.Perth2011.com
Star and 49er still in Olympic qualifying position but margins tighten (from Rachel Solon, Irish Sailing Association)
A light and shifty day saw mixed fortunes for Irish crews in Perth. Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern in the 49er scored a 7th, 11th and 12th in their three races and now lie 15th overall. A further three days of racing will take place for the 49er class before the medal race on Sunday. The top 14 nations will earn their place at London 2012. Seaton and McGovern are currently the 8th nation.
ISA Performance Director, James O’Callaghan remarked "Ryan and Matt had another solid day, while not as spectacular as yesterday, their three scores keeps them very much on track for Olympic qualification".
In the Star, Peter O’Leary and David Burrows were over the line early in Race 4 and incur a disqualification for that race. It means they slip to 14th overall and are now in a real fight to secure Olympic qualification. The top 11 nations will qualify for the Olympics and the Irish pair are currently the 11th nation.
O'Callaghan went on to say "The margins are so tight at this level, the guys have good speed around the course and were in 2nd position when they were pulled from the race. While it is a setback it is by no means a situation from which they cannot recover".
James Espey in the Laser also had a black flag during his first race of the day and together with a 37th in his second race, now lies 100th overall.
Storck and Moore Take Charge in the 49er (from Dana Paxton, US Sailing)
In the 67-boat 49er fleet, which is split into two fleets daily, Erik Storck (Huntington, N.Y.) and Trevor Moore (North Pomfret, Vt./Naples, Fla.) found the combination that clicked and won the day’s first race.
“The first race was great,” said Storck. “We started in a decent position, probably 8-10 boats down from the (race committee) boat. We were able to continue on toward the left, which was our game plan. Then we found ourselves doing too many tacks, and we convinced ourselves to stick with our game plan. We chased out left and got leverage on the fleet. Then we got a nice puff and ended up first at the weather mark. We were able to extend on the fleet and put that #1 up on the board.”
The next two races went their way as well. As Storck described, they followed a similar game plan to the winning formula in race 4. “The pressure was significantly left for the whole beat and we brought ourselves down to the pin, maybe one boat to leeward, at the start. We were pulling the trigger at the right time. We had good boat speed. Doug Charko our meteorologist gave us good things to think about. How the pressure was going to come across the course from the left. And it was just like college sailing; if you start at the pin 80% of the races, you’ll do well. And that’s what we did today.”
The 1-3-3 for the day finds the top American skiff sailors in 2nd overall, three points behind leaders Peter Krüger Andersen and Nicolai Thorsell (DEN).
“There’s a lot of really good competition,” said Storck. “The Danish and Kiwis sailed well. It’s too early in the regatta to tell what’s going to happen. We’re going to keep putting up top fives and top 10s and get to the final series.” The 49er fleet continues its qualifying series on Wednesday.
Mark Mendelblatt (Miami, Fla.) and Brian Fatih (Miami, Fla.) came back strong in the Star class, scoring a 4-4 on a tricky day with intermittent rain. They are tied on points for second overall with Mateusz Kusznierwicz and Dominik Zycki (POL), and sit only one point from new fleet leaders Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA). Yesterday’s fleet leaders Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR) dropped out after they sustained injury and dropped out of the regatta.
Women’s Match Racing continued with the seeding matches for semi-finals. The top four teams, including Anna Tunnicliffe’s (Plantation, Fla.) Team Maclaren of Molly Vandemoer (Stanford, Calif.) and Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.), spent the day practicing while the repechage round was completed.
Wednesday will see the quarter-final round where Tunnicliffe will match up against Nicky Souter (AUS), the third-place team from the repechage round. Quarter finals are a “first to three wins” round. The top four teams will advance to the semi-final round on Thursday, Dec. 15 with the finals scheduled for Friday, Dec. 16.
For Genny Tulloch (Sausalito, Calif.), Alice Manard Leonard (East Haven, Conn.) and Jenn Chamberlin (Washington, D.C.), the team saw their chance at a World title end when they finished the repechage round with 7 wins, 8 losses, 11th overall.
The team, sailing together as Team GETsailing, lost to Rita Goncalves (POR), and then won handily against Renata Decnop (BRA).
“In our first match was against Rita Goncalves we were sailing pretty well around the course,” explained Leonard. “A couple of things didn’t go our way and we had a couple pretty big boat handling errors that let her catch up with us. We got ahead of her and then she passed us on a shift, but we were still ready to take on the next one.
“Against Renata Decnop, we had a good start against them. We sailed really clean around the course. It was a straight forward match. We lead the whole way, no penalties.”
The team then lost their final match against Stephanie Hazard (NZL). “We took that race like we take every race, one at a time, trying to get a win on the board,” continued Leonard. “We had a good pre-start against her, and got the start we wanted. We ended up leading her, then at our last windward mark the wind got squirrely. The windward mark was up under a (cargo) ship, and we got caught in a vortex. We got into a luffing match where she was able to roll us and win the match.”
Although the team had not yet debriefed the day, Leonard summed up the team’s outlook. “We try to take every regatta and every race as a learning experience because what really matters is our Trials in May and the Games in August.”
Amanda Clark (Shelter Island, N.Y.) and Sarah Lihan (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) slipped down two places to 7th overall in the Women’s 470 (Women's Two Person Dinghy). They scored a 15-16, while world #1 duo Erin Maxwell (Wilton, Conn.) and Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar (New York/Fishers Island, N.Y.) went 6-19 to climb up to 19th overall.