Cadet World Championships at the WPNSA - Day 6
by Peter Collyer 22 Aug 2014 14:52 BST
15-22 August 2014
Big Thursday
After the rest and relaxation of the lay-day the Cadet fleet was greeted by the excitement of 'lights, camera, action!' when they arrived at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy for Day 6 of their World Championships. Both the BBC and ITV were in attendance, keen to cover the story of this premier junior sailing event. Interviews were conducted in the dinghy-park and the presence of a large media boat bristling with broadcasting equipment transformed the windward mark into a film set. This all seemed highly appropriate for what quickly became known as 'Big Thursday' as, by the end of the day, 3 races had been run inside the harbour in the best conditions of the week so far.
For Race 8 the Worlds fleet were treated to a perfect course to go with the perfect conditions and they repaid the compliment by charging over the line early and hastening a general recall. They got away cleanly the second time with the black flag encouraging them to be a little more careful and quickly fanned out across the course looking for the best wind shifts. Those that followed a big starboard tack lift up the left-hand side of the course were then treated to another lift when they tacked onto port, putting many way above a sensible lay line to the mark. A more conservative left-side route paid dividends, and one of the principal gainers here was GBR9635 Louis Mellor/Rosie Targett who rounded the 1st windward mark a very close 2nd behind AUS9614 Olivia Neilson/Gabriel Nolan. Behind these two the usual suspects queued up to do battle on the downwind legs: ARG9472 Nahuel Ponce/Lucas Pruden, UKR9853 Igor Lvov/Maria Kulbashina, GBR8352 Lucy/Cally Terkelsen and series leaders AUS9616 Thomas/Sophie Alexander. At the bottom of the course Neilson and Nolan held onto the lead but the Argentinian and Ukrainian boats had joined Thomas and Sophie Alexander in sweeping past Louis and Rosie. As the race progressed it was the Alexanders who once more made all the gains upwind and sailed faultlessly downwind and by the final reach they were leading their team-mates in AUS9614 home. Ponce/Pruden (ARG) came in third and of the other contenders Lucy and Cally Terkelsen finished 5th and Julius Mathwig and Matthias Henning (GER) 12th.
Race 9 started cleanly first time with more breeze and even more sunshine. This time Thomas and Sophie Alexander wasted no time getting to the front and had a clear lead at the windward mark. They had different team-mates for company at the front of the pack for this race in AUS9331 Louis Schofield/Peter Allen, with Mathwig and Henning 3rd and GBR8441 Ben Shorrock/Ellie Watling 4th. As the fleet romped around the course the front four pulled away steadily and were well clear by the final lap. The Alexanders posted their 6th wind of the series, their German challengers Mathwig and Henning moved up to second ahead of AUS9931 with Shorrock and Watling holding onto their excellent 4th place.
After a break on the water for lunch Race 10 got underway with gust over 20 knots being recorded. Fatigue was starting to show in some of the younger teams and this time the fleet was more spread out by the end of the first beat. The top reach to the outer loop was now a high-speed three-sail reach and enough of a sea had built up inside the harbour for the boats to surf down the runs. At the windward mark it was the Belgian team who showed they could master the conditions, BEL8520 Cesar Smet/Emiel Marien rounding 1st with BEL9854 Sarah Roosen/Lise Marie Van Damme close behind. Also going well at this point was POL9970 Tobiasz Wisniewski/Zuzanna Zachlowska in 3rd. At the bottom of the course for the first time Smet and Marien had kept the lead but Thomas and Sophie Alexander had found their stride once more, going through the gate in 2nd with their German rivals Mathwig and Henning close behind. By the end of the next lap the German boat had shown great downwind speed to overtake the Belgian and Australian teams and take a lead which they held to the finish. BEL8520 came across the line 2nd with the Alexanders 3rd.
Going into the final day the maths show that the Alexanders can only be beaten to the World Championship title by Germany's Mathwig and Henning. Top GBR boat Lucy and Cally Terkelsen sit in 3rd.
In the Promotional fleet the racing has been tight all week with a very high standard of sailing throughout. Race 8 was the 3rd win of the series for Lainey Terkelsen and Martha Jones, who followed this with 5th place in Race 9 and 2nd in Race 10 to lie 2nd overall by one point from Lucy Knott and Daisy Nunn who scored a 3 and a 1 in Races 8 and 9 before retiring from Race 10 after a capsize. Third overall now are Sam Yale and Harry Chatterton with a 10, 3, 4 on the day, 4th overall are previous series leaders Archie Penn and Hazel Whittle while Australians William and Claire Townson have moved up to 5th after winning Race 10.
The competition comes to its conclusion on Friday with two more races, a prize-giving and a closing ceremony and many fond farewells before the International Cadet Class disperses to all corners of the globe once more. Full results can be found at www.cadetclass.org.uk/sitedata/Worlds_14/Cadet_Worlds_Results.pdf
and the BBC report on the event can be viewed 13.45 minutes into this edition of 'Spotlight', www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04dqc68/spotlight-21082014