29er Europeans – French crew makes big jump after Day 3 in Medemblik

by Diana Bogaards on 21 Jul 2015 2015 29er European Championships – After four races in the final series, Gwendal Nael and Pierre Tydgot from France took over the lead of the 2015 29er Europeans in Medemblik, Netherlands.

The French pair started this third day of the championship off with two bullets in a row and added a second and tenth. They lead by one point, ahead of Peter Lin Janezic and Anze Podlogar from Slovenia. The British Crispin Beaumont and Tom Darling grabbed the fourth and last victory, which lifted them up to the third position overall.

'The wind was very shifty and unstable. We like these conditions, because we are light', explained Pierre Tydgot, who scored the best series of the day. The Frenchmen entered the gold fleet in tenth position and jumped to the leading position. They obviously shine in the light and patchy breeze, but others experienced more difficulties. All top five teams carry one lesser result from today's racing. Even Janezic and Podlogar, who finished 2-5-12-4: 'We are not so happy about our performance today. We had one bad race and the others were ok. We made mistakes, mostly tactical decisions, which were not supposed to happen.'

Crispin Beaumont and Tom Darling from Great Britain managed to accelerate in the gold fleet. Beaumont: 'We had a really good day with a 3-3-14-1. We had a nice last race with a decent lead until the wind picked up behind us. That made it a bit more nerve-racking. We are looking forward to tomorrow. It is nice having a range of conditions from four up to 20 knots of breeze. That makes it a super fair championship. We just need to take a couple more points. We can win the event. Our goal is top five, but hopefully we can get on the podium.' They climbed up from fifth to third place overall, only one point behind the Slovenians and two from the leading pair. 'We hope to finish top three. The wind will pick up tomorrow, but we will do our best', concludes the French helm.

Win and loss

Fourth placed Gwendal Lamay and Luke Willim from Germany and fifth placed Cas van Dongen and Robin Becker made the most impressive progress. They moved up from respectively the fifteenth and fourteenth place. Van Dongen: 'We do better in this lighter weather. Most other teams also took more risk during the last few days, whereas we sailed conservatively. Today, that strategy paid off.' His crew Becker adds: 'We awaited our opportunities, which gave us the advantage.' The gap with a podium position amounts to 19 points, but as long as they finish top 12 the Dutchmen are more than happy. 'We need to finish at least twelfth to maintain our national talent status. It is a plus if we do better.'

On the other side, the winners of the qualifying series Odile van Aanholt and Quinten Bramervaer lost many points by finishing 11-12-23-14. The mixed Dutch duo dropped to tenth.

The silver and emerald fleets on the green course completed three races, after which the breeze decreased to three knots and the race committee had to abandon further racing. The Spanish girls Carla and Marta Munte lead the silver fleet, Cecilia and Catharina Sandman from Finland the bronze fleet and Luis Olivia and Arnou Guillemot from Spain the emerald. The final result from the qualifying series counts as race 8 in the final series. Three last races are planned for tomorrow, the final day of the 2015 29er Europeans.

Top five gold fleet after 12 races:
FRA 13 - Nael/Tydgot, 24 points
SLO 6 - Janezic/Podlogar, 25 points
GBR 1967 - Beaumont/Darling, 26 points
GER 12 - Lamay/Willim, 44 points
NED 15 - Van Dongen/Becker, 45 points

The 2015 29er European Championships are supported by Magic Marine and Van Oord, worldwide active as leading international contractor, specialising in dredging, marine engineering and offshoreprojects (oil, gas and wind) with innovative, sustainable solutions for maritime challenges.

Complete results after 3/4 races

 

Bronze Fleet after four races

No	Sailno	Name	Scores
1	FIN 2035	Sandman, Cecilia, Sandman, Catharina, F	21,0
2	GBR 2123	JMain, Jessie, Lewis, Dominic, Y	29,0
3	GBR 2018	Robertson, Luke, Berkley, Izzie, Y	49,0

Gold Fleet after four races

No	Sailno	Name	Scores
1	FRA 13	Nael, Gwendal, Tydgat, Pierre, Y	24,0
2	SLO 6	Janezic, Peter Lin, Podlogar, Anze, Y	25,0
3	GBR 1967	Beaumont, Crispin, Darling, Tom, Y	26,0

All fleets after three races

Silver

No	Sailno	Name	Scores
1	ESP 1787	Munte, Carla, Munte, Marta, Y, F	19,0
2	GBR 2399	Hewitt, Bobby, Martin, Harvey, Y	30,0
3	ESP 1353	Barrio Garcia, Andres, Vega, Nestor, Y	37,0

Bronze

No	Sailno	Name	Scores
1	FIN 2035	Sandman, Cecilia, Sandman, Catharina, F	17,0
2	GBR 2123	Main, Jessie, Lewis, Dominic, Y	27,0
3	GBR 2275	Munro, Katie, Hurst, Beth, Y, F	30,0

Emerald

No	Sailno	Name	Scores
1	ESP 1626	Oliva, Luis, Guillemat, Arnau, Y	16,0
2	GER 1729	Larsen, Johanna, Becker, Lena Sophie, Y, F	16,0
3	FRA 1963	Jacquin, Maïwenn, Percheron, Enora, Y, F	24,0