Yngling Worlds at Lake Mondsee, Austria - Overall

Ayton, Lush and MacDonald pleased with Yngling World Championships result

Today was the final day of racing at the ISAF Yngling World Championship on Lake Mondsee, Austria. It has been an eventful regatta for the 35 competitors in the women’s fleet with shifty conditions pushing the teams to the limit.

Athens Olympic gold medallist, Sarah Ayton and her new team, Annie Lush and Lisa MacDonald found the shifty conditions hard to deal throughout the week, although they took a bullet in the last race yesterday. With 280 degree wind shifts today, the team finished in eighteenth place for the last race which dropped the team down to seventh place overall.

Earlier in the week Ayton protested the committee over the finish of race six. The Olympic women’s fleet found themselves fast approaching the men’s/open fleet. The 65 boats of the open fleet were racing in little wind, with the consequence that the fleets met on the lake. Confusion set in as many of the female helms, including Ayton, identified the leeward gate as the finish when in actual fact they were marks for the open fleet only. Ayton was successfully awarded average points. However, the British team finished ninth in the race but at this point in the Championship had an eleven point average. Ayton found herself protesting once again, was allowed to withdraw her original request for redress, and kept ninth place.

Ayton commented: “The women’s fleet turned downwind onto the open fleet and we found ourselves picking our way through them. We couldn’t see the finish line as one of the blue flags was directly behind an orange buoy. So, unfortunately we lost a few places.”

Sally Barkow/Carrie Howe/Debbie Capozzi of America are the newly crowned Yngling World Champions finishing nine points in front of the New Zealanders Sharon Ferris/Raynor Smeal/Ashley Holtum. Defending Champion Trine Palludan, and crew, from Denmark finished fifteenth.

Ayton stated that the Championship has been a success: “After five months of training together, the Championship is our first major event. We sailed well but were up against several well established teams here. With time and more training I believe that we will continue to grow and can only get stronger.”

Other Team GBR representatives Dominica Lindsey, Diana Shanks and Fleur Oswald secured a first earlier in the week and finished in twenty third place overall, with Gemma Farrel, Rachel Howe and Caroline Bowen finishing one place behind in twenty fourth.

Further information and results can be found on the event website www.yngling2005.com

Overall Results:

1 Sally Barkow/Carrie Howe/Debbie Capozzi (3,8,1,(18),1,11/RDG,4,3,11,11) USA 48.7pts
2, Sharon Ferris/Raynor Smeal/Ashley Holtum NZL (11,6,(16),1,4,1,5,11,7,12) 58pts
3, Vlada Ferries/Ekaterina Kovalenko/Natalia Gaponovich RUS (14,(DNF),3,5,2,22,12,8,13) 61pts
Team GBR
7 Sarah Ayton/Anne Lush/Liza MacDonald ((23), 3,15,9,6,10,10,13,1,18) 85pts
23 Dominica Lindsey/Diana Shanks/Fleur Oswald (22,1,20,30,(32),3,25,29,25,19) 174pts
24 NeiGemma Farrel/Rachel Howe/Caroline Bowen (10,18,5,17,23,25,(OCS),28,26,31) 183pts