ISAF SWC Melbourne - Australians battle it out on home waters

by Cora Zillich on 10 Dec 2014 At the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Melbourne Australian Sailing Team’s Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW) are in the lead of the 49er fleet after three days of racing. Team mates Jason Waterhouse (NSW) and Lisa Darmanin (NSW) are leading the Nacra 17, while Laser World #1 Tom Burton moved into first place in the Laser fleet after two days of racing. Australian Sailing Team’s Paralympic athletes Dan Fitzgibbon (NSW) and Liesl Tesch (NSW) are in top position of the Skud 18as is Matt Bugg (TAS) in the 2.4mR.

Thirteen Olympic and Paralympic Australian Sailing Team (AST) athletes and 30 Australian Sailing Squad (ASS) members are currently battling it out on home waters on Port Phillip in nine Olympic and in two Paralympic boat classes at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne (8-14 December 2014) amongst 185 Olympic boats and 306 Invited class boats from a total of 34 countries.

Today was the ‘hump day’ at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Melbourne with the 49er/FX, Nacra 17, RSX Women finishing day three of racing with medal races in these classes scheduled for Saturday, 13 December. The Men’s and Women’s 470, Finn, Laser/Radial and Paralympic classes finished their second day of racing.

And results are already adding up to determine who goes through to the medal races on the week-end.

49er (Men’s Skiff)
Australian Sailing Team’s Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW) are leading the 49er fleet after three days of racing and are enjoying racing on home waters.

'It’s great to be able to have an event like this in our home country. We don’t have a massive 49er fleet here, but we have a quality fleet', Nathan Outteridge said after racing tonight. 'We haven’t sailed the boat since the Worlds in Santander but to be able to step back in and race at the top level in your own country is awesome.'

Even though it was a late start to racing due to a lack of wind in the first half of the day, the breeze kicked in eventually:

'The racing has been really good here. We’ve had three days of racing now and we’ve had a range of some fresh conditions on the first day, it was pretty light on day two and today we had to wait a long time to get out. But as it always does here, the breeze will eventually come in', Outteridge added.

The Olympic gold medallists already won a major victory just getting to the start line for their first races on Monday (8 December). Outteridge and Jensen missed a connecting flight and left San Francisco on Saturday night, which put them into Melbourne at 9.30am on Monday with racing starting at 12 p.m. But they were not fazed by the delay and put in a 1, 2, 2 on the first day of racing and moved into first position on day two.

Australian Sailing Team’s David Gilmour (WA) and Rhys Mara (NSW) kicked-off the regatta in first and after three days of racing are ranked overall second.

49erFX
Nine races down and Australian Sailing Squad’s Tess Lloyd (VIC) and Caitlin Elks (WA) are in the lead of the 49erFX women’s skiff.

Tess Lloyd and Caitlin Elks have had a strong run over the first three days of racing and are leading the fleet by two points ahead of the Norwegians Helene Næss and Marie Rønningen.

It was an unlucky day for Australian Sailing Team’s Olivia Price (NSW) and crew Eliza Solly (VIC), who were not able to finish day three racing after breaking the mast in the second race of the day.

'Today was not a good day for us. We were going down wind when we caught a wave and didn’t quite prepare for it, so we nosedived into it and capsized. We then couldn’t get the spinnaker in fast enough and we had to turtle the boat. We must have been in shallow water, because when we brought the mast back up, it was in pieces,' Olivia Price explained.

'It’s really disappointing. We haven’t had the best week and we were really focused on racing today. We were very mixed up yesterday with our settings and speed and were not able to race well and today we really wanted to be in there.'

'Unfortunately in the first race of the day we lost two positions on the last run and ended up with a third and to now have to DNFs (did not finish) for the last two races of the day is obviously not what we wanted.'

'It’s going to be really tough to come back from this, but we have to use this regatta to practice racing and we’ll do as much as we can and hopefully we’ll still be in some positions at the end of the regatta.'

Nacra
It has been a powerful performance from the young AST Nacra team of Jason Waterhouse (NSW) and Lisa Darmanin (NSW) with the pair posting one race win after the other over the first two days of racing.

On day three, the race wins were spread more evenly across the fleet with each AST/ASS crews posting a race win.

'I was feeling generous today so we all won a race today', Jason Waterhouse joked after a late finish of racing. 'It was a tricky day and everyone sailed pretty well and we made more mistakes than over the last two days,' he added more seriously.

'It was more self-mutilation, self-inflicted and the two third positions were not great. The race win at the start saved the day, but apart from that it wasn’t a good day. Back tomorrow for more.'

Darren Bundock (NSW) and Nina Curtis (NSW) are ranked overall second, while Euan McNicol (NSW) and Lucinda Whitty (NSW) sit in third.

Laser
After four races, World #1 Tom Burton and 2014 ISAF Sailing World Cup Champion has taken the lead in the laser fleet. Australian Sailing Squad’s Matt Wearn (WA) follows in second.

Finn
ISAF Sailing World Championships’ bronze medallist Ed Wright (GBR) is leading the Finn after four races across two days.

In today’s racing, Australian Sailing Squad’s and local Victorian Oliver Tweddell scored a bullet, which put him into overall second, followed by Queenslander Jake Lilley in third.

'It’s nice to move up into second place overall. In the first race today I was yellow flagged for pumping and dropped to fourth with my penalty, but then managed to come back to finish third in that race, which I was really happy with' Tweddel said.

'In the second race I led from start to finish. There were some big shifts out there; you had to be on your toes.'

Skud 18
Australian Sailing Team’s Dan Fitzgibbon (NSW) and Liesl Tesch (NSW) are back together at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne and racing in Australia for the first time since winning gold at the Paralympic Games in 2012 and their first IFDS World Championship title in Halifax, Canada in August.

The successful partnership produced two wins on day one and with a third and another race win on day two the pair is in the lead after two days of racing.

'The third place today was a bit of a disappointment, but we got 'jellyfished' out there on the water. We’ve never been 'jellyfished' before', Liesl Tesch laughed when getting off the water. 'We were tracking down wind, we were hooting in front of the whole the fleet and boom! We finished the race third and when we backed down a massive jellyfish came off our keel. It was unbelievable – what are the chances!?'

'But we are still ranked first overall. It was a bit disappointing the jellyfish took the glory of our unbeaten run so far away from us, but it was all good fun out there on the Skud course,' she added.

Australian Sailing Squad’s Amy Barmbrook (NSW) and Brett Pearce (NSW) moved up into overall second on the second day of racing.

2.4mR
Australian Sailing Team’s Paralympian Matt Bugg (TAS) is leading the 2.4mR fleet after four races and was able to secure a bit of a buffer by posting a first and third in today’s racing.

'The racing was closer today and it was probably a bit more fun than yesterday. Sailing this new boat, there are still some things I am not 100 per cent sure about. Every day I am getting a little bit more familiar with it, which hopefully equate into a performance gain. Today’s given me a good buffer,' Bugg said after racing.

Melbourne kick starts the ISAF World Cup series before the sailors head to the USA, France, Great Britain and an Asian venue. The series will culminate in the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Final Abu Dhabi.

Held at Sandringham Yacht Club, racing at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Melbourne started on Monday, 8 December 2014 with Medal Races scheduled for Saturday, 13 and Sunday, 14 December 2014.

2014 ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne Australian Sailing Team & Squad Entries (as of 10 December 2014):

Mixed Multihull – Nacra17
- Jason Waterhouse (NSW) & Lisa Darmanin (NSW) – AST: 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, (3), 3 – first
- Darren Bundock (NSW) & Nina Curtis (NSW) – AST: (3), 2, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1, 2 – second
- Euan McNicol (NSW) & Lucinda Whitty (NSW) – ASS: 2, 3, 2, (4), 3, 2, 3, 2, 1 – third
- Paul Darmanin (NSW) & Lucy Copeland (NSW) – ASS Bridging: (4), 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Men’s Skiff – 49er
- Nathan Outteridge (NSW) & Iain Jensen (NSW) – AST: 1, 2, 2, (16 BFD), 2, 1, 1, 2, 3 – first
- David Gilmour (WA) & Rhys Mara (VIC) – AST: 5, 1, 1, (16 BFD), 1, 6, 2, 7, 6 – second
- Joel Turner (QLD) & Lewis Brake (QLD) – ASS: 2, (16 OCS), 5, 3, 6, 7, 16 UFD), 3, 1 – sixth
- Harry Price (NSW) & Harry Morton (NSW) – ASS Bridging: 3, (16 OCS), 5, 3, 6, 7, 16, 10, 8 – 10th

Women's Skiff – 49erFX
- Tess Lloyd (VIC/ASS) & Caitlin Elks (WA/ASS): 1, (6), 1, 1, 4, 1, 6, 2, 3 – first
- Olivia Price (NSW/AST) & Eliza Solly (VIC/ASS): 2, 2, 4, 3, 6, 7, 3, (9 RET), 9 RET – fifth
- Haylee Outteridge (NSW/ASS) & Sarah Cook (VIC): 5, 5, 3, 6, 2, 5, 7, 6, 6 – sixth

Men's One Person Dinghy – Laser
- Tom Burton (NSW) – AST: 2, 2, 1, (5) – first
- Matthew Wearn (WA) – ASS: 3, (10), 2, 1 – second
- Ryan Palk (QLD) – ASS: (14), 7, 6, 10 – 10th
- Luke Elliott (NSW) – ASS: 17, 20, 5, 3 – 11th
- Mitchell Kennedy (QLD) – ASS: 11, 12, (13), 9 – 13th
- Mark Spearman (WA) – ASS Bridging: 29, 22, 22, 12 – 21st

Men's One Person Dinghy (Heavyweight) – Finn
- Oliver Tweddell (VIC) – ASS: 2, 4, 3, 1 – second
- Jake Lilley (QLD) – ASS: 3, 2, 2, 4 – third

Women's One Person Dinghy – Laser Radial
- Ashley Stoddart (QLD) – ASS: 2, 2, (9), 8 – fifth
- Anna Philip (VIC) – ASS Bridging: 18, 15, 14, 10 – 15th

Men’s Two Person Dingy – 470M
- Alexander Conway & Patrick Conway (NSW) – ASS: 1, 1, 2, (3) – first

Women's Two Person Dinghy – 470W
- Sasha Ryan (QLD) & Amelia Catt (TAS) – ASS: 1, 1, 1, 1 – first
- Jeni Lidget-Dansk & Jaime Ryan (QLD) – ASS: 2, 2, (3 UFD), 2 – second

Women's Windsurfer – RS:X
- Joanna Sterling (QLD) – ASS: (7 OCS), 4, 3, 3, 2, 1, 4, 3, 4 – third

Paralympic Boat Classes
Skud 18
- Daniel Fitzgibbon (NSW) & Liesl Tesch (NSW) – AST: 1, 1, (3), 1 – first
- Amy Barnbrook (NSW) & Brett Pearce (NSW) – ASS: 2, (4), 2, 4 – second

2.4mR
- Matt Bugg (TAS) – AST: 1, 2, 1, 3 – second
- Neil Patterson (TAS) – ASS: 8, 6, (10) – ninth