470 Worlds - What to do when the wheels fall off - a Champions view

by Rob Kothe on 15 Oct 2015 Having not been off the podium since the London Olympics Gold Medallist Australia's Mat Belcher and his crew Will Ryan were hot favourites going into the 2015 470 World Championships on Haifa Bay Israel this week.

Three guns on Day One reinforced the fact that they were the team to beat and yesterday’s 2-10 still left them with a solid margin. But today viewing from their very high performance standard- the wheels fell off.

In marginal racing conditions, with breezes hardly above five knots, the first race was won by Spaniards Rayco Tabares and Alfredo Gonzalez, with Croatia's Sime Fantela, Igor Marenic second ahead of Sofian Bouvet Mion Jeremie (FRA) third.

The second race gun went to Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom (SWE) with the Croatian duo second, with Carl-Fredrik Fock and Marcus Dackhammar third.

Belcher and Ryan came ashore with a disastrous 21, 15 day, leaving then in second place behind Fantela and Marenic, on count back from Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom. (SWE)

Sail-World spoke to 2013 Rolex World Sailor of the Year Mat Belcher straight after the second race and Belcher's comments reveal just why they have the amazing regatta record they do:

‘Not what we wanted or what we had planned today. The wind was quite variable and we just found ourselves a little bit in the middle and didn’t quite get the first shift and found ourselves catching up and when you are racing the level here, if you don’t get it right you can find yourself pretty far back pretty quickly as well.

‘The starts were okay. In the last start we were really happy but the guys above us were well ahead and black flagged (American team Stuart McNay and Dave Hughes) and their forward position hurt us.

‘Getting to the first shift was the issue. In very shifty conditions you have got to be able to respond and have the flexibility and put yourself in the right position and we just didn’t really do that well today.

‘The first day, when we scored three firsts, we had about 11 to 14 knots. As soon as we are on the wire (trapeze) which is only probably 7 to 8 knots we feel really comfortable and have been working pretty hard to lower the wind range in which we have an advantage.

‘We only race down to five knots, so we need to do better in the next two or three knots and fortunately in terms of experience for next year this two or three knots wind range that we had had, yesterday and today and probably for the rest of the week, is something we need to work on and it is tricky.

‘The Europeans get that practice a lot more than we do and this event it is certainly going to help us come next year.

‘Today’s first race we were a little bit unlucky. We were actually in about 11 or 12 position coming along the last reach mark and unfortunately the men and the women overlapped so we had the 40 plus boats of the women and 30 of the men. We didn’t have any wind and we just got caught in the traffic jam unfortunately.

‘It was a good way to lose ten places but I guess in the last race we had a pretty good come back to gain a lot of the places, to still be in second place overall. You win some you lose some.’

‘The Croatians sailed well today. To come ashore with a 2, 2 in those conditions is impressive. They are a very experienced team.

‘We are disappointed about today but it certainly makes it interesting. We are going to go back and have a bit of a discussion about speed and everything else and we will take tomorrow as tomorrow.

‘There is a lot of racing still to do, there are another four final races to go, then the medal race as well.

‘Even with today’s poor results we are still in second position. Today we have learned quite a bit and will definitely be able to regroup for tomorrow and we know we need to do, so hopefully we can regroup and get the job done.’

So the next five races will certainly be interesting, the Croatian's have what it takes to beat out the World Champions but with the medal maker Victor Kovalenko in their corner, the Aussies will certain fight hard. Interesting times..

In the 470 Women’s fleet, the 42 boats made race officials task quite difficult today, two boats were black flagged in the first race today and a big 16 in the second race.

Austrian's Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar with a 5,7 day led by just one point from British sailors Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, who won the first race today and placed eighth in the second while the consistent American duo of Anne Haeger and Briana Provancha, with a pair of thirds today are in third place overall.