Please select your home edition
Edition
Selden 2020 - LEADERBOARD

49er and 49erFX European Championships - Trying conditions

by Canada Sailing Team on 5 Jul 2013
Day 2 - 49er and 49erFX Europeans 2013 Canada Sailing Team
On days two and three of the 2013 SAP 49er and 49erFX European Championships there were trying conditions. More breeze and heavy rain drained competitors of everything they had while very little wind at the start of the day three made for a six hour wait on the water before the first race got off. Team Mori/Barnes posted a 15, 18, 21 and 19 on day two, just ahead of Ladha/Inkpen who scored 15, 20, 22, 15. Both placed in silver fleet. Royal Canadian's Ferguson twins Arthur and John posted 27, 24, 20 and 27, moving them to bronze fleet for today's racing.

At the start of Silver Fleet, drifter conditions and blood thirsty boats saw more than half the fleet OCS, including both Canadians.

John Ladha's thoughts on day two - 'We know the taste of familiar defeat, but we do it to ourselves. Our coach said that we set ourselves up for this because on the back of gold fleet in Kiel, success in North America and eyes bigger than appetites. He has been saying all along that this fleet is going to be way different. Every top team in the world is on this start line, which by the way is much smaller than Kiel's line. So our performance goal one of qualifying to gold fleet has definitely not been reached, and we are having difficulty with our process goal of starting which is the most important goal for our peaking event at the end of the summer, the World Championships. Coming in late on port and tacking in to a hole is a good technique because you get to see the big picture of how the packs of boats are situated on the line, you get to look upwind clearly without being stuck in boat on boat battles 2 minutes before the race even starts Yes coming in late on port worked well in Kiel. Here there are holes to find, but there's only one or two and they tend to be near the the top teams because they are the best at creating space and also nobody wants to start near them.

As for the racing it was about 15 knots and big steep waves. Pretty amazing conditions for the 49er. Downwind we'd not throttle back enough when we should and consequently smash the bow into the back of a wave and upwind we'd often dial in pretty good, but on the back of a bad start it's an impossible task to claw back to the top of the fleet. One time we were picked up by a wave, taken off the boat, turned upside down and smashed right back on the boat. Amazingly it was still going pretty fast and didn't wipe out and as Dan was picking himself up off the wires I was dragging up side down yelling 'it's ok, we're ok' as I gargled the ocean! All we could do is laugh...haha.

So yes we deserve to be deep in silver fleet, but there a lot of guys in there that shouldn't be, like the 49er silver medalist at the 2009 World Championships, 470 Olympic silver medalist 2012, and the Tornado class Olympic gold medalists from 2004. Our final series goals remain the same for the event, good starts, and to move up the score sheet.'

Racing will continue tomorrow. hoping for more wind and better results.
Henri-Lloyd Dynamic RangeAllen Dynamic 40 FooterZhik 2024 December

Related Articles

2025 29er Europeans at Lake Garda Day 1
Five teams tied at the top Ikke Huber / Liam Berger (Switzerland) lead the charge after sweeping all 3 races in the Green fleet — an impressive perfect score of 2 points. Lucas & Moritz Hamm, the dynamic twin duo from Germany, matched their Swiss rivals with consistency and pace.
Posted on 3 Jul
Onboard reporters in the Course des Caps
Enjoying the challenge of bringing the race to life In the Course des Caps - Boulogne sur Mer - Banque Populaire du Nord, the Onboard Reporters, or OBRs, are back doing a wonderful job of bringing IMOCA racing to life with pictures, videos, interviews and reports from the boats.
Posted on 3 Jul
Rolex TP52 Worlds in Cascais Day 2
Consistent American Magic Quantum Racing move clear ahead American Magic Quantum Racing stepped three points clear at the top of the 2025 Rolex TP52 World Championship leaderboard today in Cascais, Portugal on the strength of a first and third from two breezy races.
Posted on 3 Jul
505 UK Nationals at Weymouth
Michael Sims and Carl Gibbon hold back Howie Hamlin and Andy Zinn Apart from one 'stumble' in Race 7, the two leading boats were almost invisibly tied together to the point that after 8 races, they were tied on points.
Posted on 3 Jul
Robert H. Tiedemann Classics Regatta concludes
A triumphant start to the Classic Yacht Challenge Series The 2025 Robert H. Tiedemann Classics Regatta, hosted by the New York Yacht Club, delivered a spectacular start to this year's Classic Yacht Challenge Series.
Posted on 3 Jul
Unforgettable Transatlantic Race 2025 finish
First to arrive was Ocean Fifty Calamity, co-skippered by Timo Tavio and Kimo Nordström. It was rush hour in Cowes on Day 15 of the west-to-east Transatlantic Race 2025, as boats crossed the finish line in Cowes within minutes of each other after an epic 3,000-mile battle for top honors in IRC 1.
Posted on 3 Jul
iQFOiL World Championships set to open in Aarhus
Olympic medalists and world-class riders gather in Denmark for the biggest iQFOiL event of the year. The stage is set in Aarhus for a spectacular week of high-speed sailing as the iQFOiL World Championships 2025 kick off on 4 July, bringing together over 200 of the world's best windsurfers from more than 40 nations.
Posted on 3 Jul
The Ocean Race Europe to showcase new race tracker
Developed with PredictWind to revolutionise race coverage The Ocean Race, often described as the toughest test of a team in sport and widely recognised as a leader in impactful ocean health initiatives, and PredictWind, a global leader in marine weather forecasting, are collaborating on a new race tracker.
Posted on 3 Jul
Oliver Heer confirms 2028 Vendée Globe ambition
The Swiss skipper aims to return for the 2028 edition of the legendary solo race with a newer boat After completing the Vendée Globe 2024 on his first attempt, Oliver Heer, the Swiss-German skipper of Tut gut Sailing, has confirmed his intention to return for the 2028 edition of the legendary solo race.
Posted on 3 Jul
SailingFast to provide unrivalled event support
During the WASZP Games at the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy SailingFast UK is set to land in Weymouth on the 8th of July and will be on-site until the 26th of July to provide the GOLD STANDARD in event support.
Posted on 3 Jul