Hobie 16 Worlds in South Africa - British Team Report

Five British teams took part in the Hobie 16 worlds in South Africa © Ruth Tayler

Five British teams took part in the Hobie 16 worlds in South Africa © Ruth Tayler

Five British teams (three youth teams and two master teams) made the journey from the UK to South Africa for the Chevrolet 2005 Hobie 16 Worlds in Port Elizabeth. A last minute crew change due to Jon Cook fracturing his thumb four days before the event saw Andrew Tayler replacing him and his parents having a chance to go and do the masters series.

The sixty Brand new Hobie 16s provided by Hobie Europe were allocated over the first three days to the Masters series and the Youth and Women. The Masters and Grand Masters were well supported with fifty-four teams competing many of them past world champions. The youth event was sailed without Gennaker unlike the Europeans, so they were less well supported, but there was still competition with the European Youth Champions from France competing.

Unfortunately the weather was against the sailors and over the three days the teams saw extremes from very windy with breaking surf (some boats had to be towed through the surf by jet skis to get them out safely) to no wind. The Masters got in one race with line honours going to Blaine Dodds and his daughter Roxanne from South Africa. From the UK ex youth catamaran coach Brian Phipps and James came 12th with Tim and Ruth Tayler 23rd.

The Youth and women faired better and got in 3 races (all races counted) the European Champions Cedric Bader and Yann Montana never really being challenged. The newly formed team of Tom Phipps and Drew Tayler did well to finish 2nd overall after a risky first race when they were four minutes late for the start after the battens came out of the sail but managed to claw up to 7th by the end of the race. Sam Newton and Nick Tayler finished 13th overall, as they unfortunately had to count a disqualification in the last race after being over the starting line. Toby Orpin and Ricky Heasman finished 18th overall.

The next 3 days were set-aside for Qualifying for the semi finals. Tom and Drew and Sam and Nick were pre qualified due to their success at the Europeans so it was only the teams of Brian Phipps and Toby Orpin who sailied in more difficult and extreme weather conditions.

High wind and waves meant that some teams reduced sail area just to get a result as only two races each were completed. The top forty-two Boats went through to the semi-finals both British teams doing well to achieve this.

The other teams took a day off to go to a local Safari Park and see the famous wildlife of South Africa.

The semi finals started with little or no wind and only two races were completed over three days. However on the fourth day conditions were much improved to a steady force 4 allowing the race officer to get in seven races in total. The final cut to determine the sailors competing in the Final round was made late in the evening after long disputes over positioning and rules. Finally fifty-six teams went into the finals on the Friday, the British Teams of Tom and Drew went in at 9th position and Sam and Nick in 19th position and Toby and Ricky in 44th, Brian and James missed the cut by a couple of slots.

Finals day dawned wet with a light breeze. After 3 false starts a race got underway, a wind shift on the first beat turned the racing into a pointless exercise with little or no place gains as the wind was in completely the wrong direction for competitive sailing. The first four boats in that race were not amongst the usual leaders. The British teams were unfortunate to be on the wrong side of the shift, which greatly influenced the final results.

Overall Results:

1st Shaun Ferry and Michele Le Sueur (South Africa)
2nd Blaine and Roxanne Dodds (South Africa)
3rd Ingo Delius and Katrin Wiese Dohse (Germany)
8th & 2nd Youth, Tom Phipps and Drew Tayler (UK)
25th Sam Newton and Nick Tayler (UK)
51st Toby Orpin and Ricky Heasman (UK)

Our thanks go to Hobie Europe for lending the boats and the RYA for providing Harvey Hilary as a coach to the Youth teams.