ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami at Coconut Grove Yacht Club - Overall
by Jake Fish, US Sailing 3 Feb 2013 06:23 GMT
26 January - 2 February 2013
Medal Race Saturday crowns new Champions
Eight Olympic class events raced for medals on Saturday's finale of the 2013 ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami. Once again, conditions on the emerald waters of Biscayne Bay mixed with the high level of competition and medal race urgency, allowed these sailors to evaluate their abilities and determine where they rank among the world's best.
Sarah Newberry and John Casey (USA) capped a fantastic regatta in the intriguing Nacra 17 event. For nearly the entire week, Newberry and Casey were at the top of the leaderboard. They were fifth in today's medal race and won the gold medal by five points. Finishing with silver was Sarah Streater and Matthew Whitehead (USA). Taylor Reiss and Sarah Lihan (USA) won bronze.
"Throughout the event we were focused on communication," said Newberry. "What carried us through was communicating about what was happening on the boat immediately on the race course, and in the end the ability to explain the situation. I'm sure at the highest end of sailing, especially when you're a woman and a man you don't always speak the same language."
"It was such a tough medal race. One minute we thought we were dead last and had to crawl back. In the end John told me we won, but I needed a minute to take it in," said Newberry.
Making another serious run at her fifth Olympic Games is Women's 470 sailor Fernanda Oliveira. The Brazilian skipper is a 2008 Olympic bronze medalist. Oliveira and Ana Luiza Barbachuan captured gold here in Miami this week. They finished second in today's medal race and won by 15 points. The Chinese teams performed well in the Women's 470. Xiaoli Wang and Xufeng Huang won the silver medal and Xiaomei Xu and Chunyan Yu will take home bronze.
Like so many Brazilian sailors, Oliveira is eager to compete for Olympic gold in her home country in Rio 2016. "This is different for me because I did four Games, each time with a different crew, but now I'm with the same crew," she explained. "It starts easier for us, but we don't live in Rio, so we need to go there often to train and we have a lot of work to do. It's a difficult place to race and the conditions are special."
Americans Stuart McNay and David Hughes finished strong in the Men's 470 medal race. Their second place result granted them the gold medal. McNay and Hughes won by a five point margin over medal race winners and silver medalists Matthias Schmid and Floran Reichstaedter (AUT). Another Austrian team reached the podium, as David Bargehr and Lucas Maher claimed the bronze.
"The bottom line was that we were trying to stay close to the Austrians today," said McNay. "We got a good start on the pin, but they still had an early lead. Some tacking ensued that drove the action back into the fleet, so we had to fight for our regatta win."
Paige Railey was outstanding again today and was at the top of her game this week, especially in the medal round. The 2012 Olympian and 2006 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year was the most consistent sailor. She won the first two races of the day and placed fourth in race 15. She won by 14 over World #5 Tuula Tenkanen (FIN), who won silver. Canadian Isabella Bertold secured the bronze medal. She won race 15.
Railey, a 2010 Laser Radial World Champion, is now a three-time winner of the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami.
The top six teams in the 49er and 49er FX events advanced to Saturday's respective medal races. The medal races were conducted using a unique format and challenging course. The theater style course included two enclosed parallel lanes approximately 400 meters long and 220 meters wide. The first boat to win two races wins the regatta. Teams entering the medal races with the lead from the fleet series will begin this stage with a win.
In a compelling medal race series, Fred Strammer and Zach Brown (USA) edged Ryan Pesch and Trevor Burd (USA) for the gold medal. Strammer and Brown entered the medal races with a carryover win from their first place fleet racing series. Pesch and Burd finished just ahead of Strammer and Brown to win the first medal race. They finished first and second again in the second medal race, with Strammer and Brown prevailing. Sebastian Ostling and Kalle Torlen (SWE) joined the Americans on the podium as bronze medalists.
The 49er FX medal race series lasted just one race. Fleet series leaders Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze won the first medal race, which put an end to an impressive run this week by the Brazilians. They totaled seven wins this week. Anna Tunnicliffe and Molly Vandemoer were third today and won the silver medal. Finishing second today and earning the bronze was Kristen Lane and Molly Carapiet (USA).
It was a tremendous week for Finn sailor Caleb Paine (USA). He won today's first medal race to seal the gold medal by 14 points. Canadian Greg Douglas won the silver medal and was third today. Jorge Zarif (BRA) finished third overall for bronze. He got off to a great start this week by winning four of his first seven races.
It was a great three-race medal series today for Estonia's Lasor sailor Karl-Martin Rammo who won two of three races and finished second in race 14. However, Sweden's Jesper Stalheim collected gold medal honors. Rammo earned the silver and Charlie Buckingham (USA) garnered bronze medal honors.
"Miami is really shifty," said Stalheim. "There was a bit more breeze in Miami than usual, so there was a lot of hiking. I was super fast on the downwind so that was great. It felt like the last day was super important, maybe a bit too much."
For the final standings, visit the results section of the event website.
Sunny skies reigned supreme again on Coconut Grove with temperatures in the high 60′s and low 70′s. Breezes ranged from 8 to 15 knots (ENE).
The lone North American stop on the ISAF Sailing World Cup series, included 303 sailors representing 37 countries.
Visit the event website at mocr.ussailing.org for real-time regatta results, video highlights, more photos, and news updates.
About ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami
ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami, established in 1990 by US Sailing, is open to boats competing in events chosen for the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions. Most Olympic classes will count a five-day opening series (Monday-Friday) and a double-point medal race (Saturday). The RS:X Men and Women will have a three day opening series (Monday-Wednesday) followed by semifinal medal round on Thursday and final medal round on Friday. The top 10 finishers in the opening series of each class will advance to the medal race. Competitors in the Paralympic classes will have five days of fleet racing (Monday-Friday) and no medal race. Medals will be awarded to the top three boats in each Olympic and Paralympic class on Saturday, February 2.
Regatta Headquarters is located at the US Sailing Center Miami, an official Olympic training center, in the Coconut Grove section of Miami, Fla. Event organizers have partnered with the city of Miami to provide world-class venues for competition. Additional hosts for the event include Coral Reef Yacht Club, Coconut Grove Sailing Club, Miami Rowing Club and Shake-a-Leg Miami. These sailing organizations host classes onshore, as well as help run the on-the-water racing. The Coral Reef Yacht Club also hosts the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
Sponsors of ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami 2013 include Sperry Top-Sider, Harken McLube, Kattack, Switlik and the University of Miami Hospital.
Update from US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider: (by Dana Paxton, US Sailing)
On the final day of racing at ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami, USA won 13 medals: five gold, three silver and three bronze. Gold went to Sarah Newberry (Miami, Fla.) and John Casey (Longwood, Fla.) in the Nacra 17; Stuart McNay (Providence, R.I.) and Dave Hughes (Miami, Fla.) in Men's 470; Caleb Paine (San Diego, Calif.); Fred Strammer (Nokomis, Fla.) and Zach Brown (San Diego, Calif.); and Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.). This regatta was a selection event for US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider and US Sailing Development Team in all classes except Nacra 17 and SKUD-18.
Highlights from day 6 include:
Nacra 17 - Making its debut in World Cup competition is the mixed multihull. Americans swept the top three positions with Newberry and Casey taking top honors. Second and third, respectively were Sarah Streater (Flagler Beach, Fla.) and Matthew Whitehead (Panama City, Fla.), and Taylor Reiss and Sarah Lihan (New York, N.Y.).
"It's definitely good to know that what we've been doing so far is working," said Newberry. "We know we have a lot of work to do and what this has shown us is what we need to work on the most. We have re-oriented our process goals."
Going into the medal race, the duo had a significant point advantage on the fleet, but as Newberry explained it wasn't that simple. "It was almost anti-climatic at the end," she said. "We were close to the pin, and thinking it was single trapping conditions. We thought that if it was hard right we had been seeing left shifts. We started closest to the pin and thought the left shift would come in, but there was a wall of right pressure, like a train and we couldn't get into it, we were last by a lot. It was such a tough medal race, one minute we thought we were dead last and had to crawl back. In the end John told me we won, but I had to take a minute to take it in."
49er - Fred Strammer and Zach Brown has an exciting medal race series. The regatta used an experimental format called "Big Sixy" referencing that the top six teams had advanced to this round, on a theatre-style course that saw a long and narrow area.
Brown explained stadium style racing. "It was really intense," he said. "The shifts were 10 seconds and 40 degrees shifts, and it was pretty wild out on the trapeze trying to keep the boat moving.
"We broke down our goals when we started sailing a year ago and we are pretty psyched with how it's going."
49er FX - Anna Tunnicliffe (Miami, Fla.) and Molly Vandemoer (Stanford, Calif.) maintained their second overall in the new Olympic skiff class, with Kristen Lane and Molly Carapiet (both Tiburon, Calif.) in third.
470 Men's – Gold went to Stuart McNay and David Hughes, who went into the final day with a nice lead on the fleet. "Mathematically speaking there could be two boats between us and the Austrians, but if there were three, they would beat us," said McNay. "The bottom line is we were trying to keep it close, but we figured our best strategy was to have a good race ourselves. So we got a good start toward the boat end and the Austrian start wasn't as good. We were in second. Some tacking ensued and drove the action back into the fleet and we had to fight for our regatta win. We were able to exit at the first downwind at the correct gate and finish the race in second place, which we're really happy about."
Laser – In the 78-boat Laser class, Charlie Buckingham (Newport Beach, Calif.) went into the medal series with a shot at gold. However, things didn't go quite according to plan. "Three double-points races meant a lot of points on the table," said Buckingham. "There was a lot to be gained or lost, and the plan was to sail on my own and then see where the points were from there. We were going to go off of what happened and it just happened I was over and go ninth. That put me behind right off the boat.
"I had a good second race, placing fourth. I was having a good last race, everything was going to plan to get silver, but I had a shocker last upwind leg and go too separated with the pack. They got a shift I didn't and I got passed by four boats and dropped to third overall. It was a bummer going into the day winning, but at the end of the day I still go a medal."
Members of the 2013 US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider will be announced at a future date.