ISAF Sailing Worlds - Dutch dominate Laser and Radial in Santander

by ISAF on 19 Sep 2014 A live crowd of thousands and a worldwide TV audience watched the Laser and Laser Radial fleets conclude racing at the Santander 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships with Dutch dominance afoot.

Marit Bouwmeester (NED) took a ten point lead into the Laser Radial Medal Race and finished third to seal the deal with Josefin Olsson (SWE) taking silver and Evi Van Acker (BEL) picking up bronze.

Nicholas Heiner (NED) dominated the Laser Medal Race as he emphatically sealed the world championship title. Tom Burton (AUS) had to settle for silver whilst Nick Thompson (GBR) takes bronze.

The Laser Radial fleet were first away on the Medal Race course at 13:15 local time. In a gusting southerly 20 knot wind blowing straight on to the stadium breakwater Evi Van Acker (BEL) won the start at the committee boat and was one of the first to tack off to the starboard side of the course.

Meanwhile Marit Bouwmeester (NED) went for speed off the start and sailed off more to the left before crossing to the right hand side. Van Acker led Mathilde de Kerangat (FRA) and Alison Young (GBR) round the first mark with Bouwmeester 20 seconds behind in fourth. The backwash from the spectator breakwater was causing some awkward waves on the downwind leg but all four boats got to the halfway point of the 30 minute race without incident. The second upwind was all about change. Acker led a group to the left whilst Bouwmeester played the middle to right won. Defending champion, Tina Mihelic (CRO), was best placed to take advantage of a right hand shift and she jumped from eighth to first.

Van Acker failed to cover the right hand side of the course and paid a high price dropping to eighth on the next rounding of the windward mark, one place behind Young. Bouwmeester maintained her fourth place which was all she had to win the title. In fact she gained a place on the downwind leg to the finish third to regain the title she won at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Australia.

In amongst a crowd of Dutch press and TV Bouwmeester said, 'I am really happy to come away with a win. I had a good start with a good back swell. It was kind of tricky on the first upwind. I wanted to go right but didn't quite make it. I was happy with my second upwind. I tried to defend a little watching the girls on the left but it was tricky. The back swell was awesome.'

At the start Nick Thompson (GBR) won the committee boat end above Phillipp Buhl (GER) and Nick Heiner (NED). Further down the line defending champion, Robert Scheidt (BRA) powered off the line and tacked on small shift to pass behind all the boats that were to windward of him. It got him to the favoured side of the course and when he tacked back he had moved up to fifth which he turned into fourth rounding the first mark behind New Zealander Sam Meech, Heiner and Buhl.

Overnight leader, Tom Burton (AUS), stuck to the left hand side of the first windward leg and struggled to get across to the favoured right and as a result rounded last with championship title slipping through his hands.

Heiner took his chance and held his second place on the downwind leg before finding an extra gear, pulling out a one minute lead on the next upwind whist those behind 'played mix the places' in the shifting conditions. After that Heiner only had to navigate the back wash downwind and finish to take the title which in spite of a scary roll as a gust hit just before the finish. Thompson had worked his way up to fifth in the race and second overall before he got caught in a backwash wave on a gybe just before a tight finish. In a close fleet the stall was enough to drop him to eighth place behind Burton in seventh and drop him to third overall with Burton taking the runner up position.

After racing Heiner said, 'Going out to the race I knew it was going to be a battle between the five us so I just wanted to give it everything I could and do my best. I wasn't nervous. I was really keen to get racing. The start was difficult. I had a lane but it was really a case of who got the first wave off the break water. It took me a little time to find my rhythm I struggled a bit on some chop but half way up the first beat I found it. Pretty much after that I got going.

'When I went round the downwind mark I look around and pretty sure the next shift was coming from the right. I found a nice set of waves on the right with some pressure and then pretty much planed up wind for half of the beat. It was awesome.'

Laser and Laser Radial Reports courtesy of Jeff Martin, International Laser Class Association

Laser Men Overall

 

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race									Points
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Total	Net
1	NED	NED 204566	Nicholas Heiner	3	10	1	4	3	(12)	12	10	2	57.00	45.00
2	AUS	AUS 199012	Tom Burton	5	3	8	2	8	4	(16)	7	14	67.00	51.00
3	GBR	GBR 201402	Nick Thompson	1	(18)	11	7	6	8	3	3	16	73.00	55.00
4	GER	GER 207189	Philipp Buhl	15	2	20	6	(38)	1	1	2	12	97.00	59.00
5	BRA	BRA 206755	Robert Scheidt	13	2	1	3	(50) BFD	9	20	8	8	114.00	64.00
6	FRA	FRA 203800	Jean Baptiste Bernaz	(26)	15	2	9	11	6	13	11	4	97.00	71.00
7	USA	USA 182345	Charlie Buckingham	6	(23)	2	8	2	19	2	16	18	96.00	73.00
8	NED	NED 206745	Rutger van Schaardenburg	14	1	1	(50) RET	21	3	14	17	6	127.00	77.00
9	NZL	NZL 196871	Sam Meech	12	6	2	(43)	16	13	19	6	10	127.00	84.00
10	CYP	CYP 206766	Pavlos Kontides	20	12	4	1	25	5	(48)	4	22 DNF	141.00	93.00
11	GBR	GBR 206940	Lorenzo Chiavarini	2	14	(29)	6	5	18	17	13		104.00	75.00
12	BRA	BRA 206757	Bruno Fontes	4	7	9	3	(34)	14	21	21		113.00	79.00
13	SWE	SWE 199617	Jesper Stalheim	12	4	5	5	(30)	11	18	27		112.00	82.00
14	NZL	NZL 206026	Andy Maloney	18	10	19	4	1	16	(39)	15		122.00	83.00
15	USA	USA 194180	Christopher Barnard	7	11	10	2	13	32	11	(43)		129.00	86.00
16	ITA	ITA 188953	Giovanni Coccoluto	1	9	(36)	13	7	24	9	26		125.00	89.00
17	AUS	AUS 206037	Ashley Brunning	11	30	(50) BFD	1	14	10	15	14		145.00	95.00
18	AUS	AUS 206019	Ryan Palk	5	9	13	1	27	26	(46)	22		149.00	103.00
19	AUS	AUS 206762	Luke Elliott	20	3	15	27	26	7	(28)	9		135.00	107.00
20	NZL	NZL 197250	Thomas Saunders	11	5	22	5	23	15	31	(38)		150.00	112.00

 

Laser Radial Overall

 

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race								Points
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Net
1	NED	NED 206333	Marit Bouwmeester	8	1	2	7	8	1	(12)	6	45.00	33.00
2	SWE	SWE 202659	Josefin Olsson	2	(16)	8	5	2	13	7	12	65.00	49.00
3	BEL	BEL 207179	Evi Van Acker	15	7	1	14	(25)	2	1	16	81.00	56.00
4	FIN	FIN 202670	Tuula Tenkanen	(20)	2	3	10	15	8	11	8	77.00	57.00
5	CZE	CZE 207167	Veronika Kozelska Fenclova	3	1	12	3	(30)	3	15	20	87.00	57.00
6	CRO	CRO 199082	Tina Mihelic	10	9	7	(39)	17	12	9	2	105.00	66.00
7	DEN	DEN 207194	Anne-Marie Rindom	14	7	(16)	12	12	15	2	4	82.00	66.00
8	FRA	FRA 196544	Mathilde de Kerangat	(27)	15	6	3	18	14	16	10	109.00	82.00
9	GBR	GBR 206251	Alison Young	13	12	(36)	8	29	4	3	14	119.00	83.00
10	BEL	BEL 207177	Emma Plasschaert	2	5	24	5	27	(31)	4	18	116.00	85.00
11	FRA	FRA 205321	Marie Bolou	(50)	8	4	25	7	11	18		123.00	73.00
12	NZL	NZL 202441	Sara Winther	7	19	10	13	(26)	19	5		99.00	73.00
13	CHN	CHN 201213	Dongshuang Zhang	5	4	32	1	1	34	(50)		127.00	77.00
14	USA	USA 184454	Erika Reineke	1	(31)	9	8	5	28	29		111.00	80.00
15	GBR	GBR 206363	Chloe Martin	10	6	4	16	13	(32)	32		113.00	81.00
16	GBR	GBR 206886	Hannah Snellgrove	9	34	5	17	(56)	7	17		145.00	89.00
17	ITA	ITA 206464	Silvia Zennaro	16	3	22	22	3	24	(43)		133.00	90.00
18	CAN	CAN 200605	Isabella Bertold	28	12	11	26	10	(40)	10		137.00	97.00
19	SIN	SIN 186755	Elizabeth Yin	38	28	7	1	16	9	(46)		145.00	99.00
20	IRL	IRL 206827	Annalise Murphy	37	(43)	8	7	36	5	13		149.00	106.00

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