RS Feva World Championship - Mediterranean conditions on Day 1

by Golly Tucker on 23 Jul 2012 RS Feva World Championship 2012 first day of racing got underway at Hayling Island Sailing Club on Sunday 22nd July. Given the UK weather recently we wouldn’t blame you for thinking this is a spoof, but it was Mediterranean for the 180 boats competing for the World title.

For the first day in 4 to 8, maybe 9kts and a tricky short chop defending world champs Matt Whitfield and James Taylor (GBR) wore the leaders yellow jerseys. Next best from last year, Leonardo Stocchero and Gianluca Vigenti (eighth ITA) wore blue and the red jerseys went to Georgia and Camilla Angiolini (11th ITA). Flighting for the first day was based on seedings lists provided by each country. Flighting is reallocated for the next two days of Qualifying based on the overnight results from the day before. And this is where today's little irony comes in.

It has been impossible to miss over here that the Tour de France Yellow Jersey was being worn by the UK’s own Wiggins. Well tomorrow! Tomorrow the Yellow goes to France’s Louis Chambet and Lucas Tissot. They were utterly magnificent in posting two bullets and a third. The tide in Hayling Bay is still at it’s spring strongest and that is making it hard. The bulk of the fleet was going quite hard right, out seaward, on the way to the first mark. But the leading small bunch in each flights races seemed to be only going right of center. That leaves the defending champs in blue for tomorrow following a very solid 1, 2, 5. Red will be worn by Ireland's Robbie King and Josh Atherton! Keeping the international theme going Leonardo and Gianluca are fourth overnight. With three fleets the points are incredibly close with the top 15 all within 10 points of each other. After the next race the Q series discard kicks in so that will give hope to those who included a chuckable result today.

The top 14 places include boats from seven nations! In order they are FRA, GBR, IRL, ITA, ESP, EST and NED. Daan Dutilh and Roos van Lokeren (14th) seem to have stepped on the gas since attending the International Training Camp in Spain at Easter. The upward curve got a further boost at the windy UK nationals. Tomas and Mads Mathisen improved every race today to take 18th. Last years U13 Winners, Courtney Bilbrough and Orla Mitchell will have been delighted by their third in R2 after the setbacks suffered this year with various glandular fevers etc. Given equal performances tomorrow Swedens Battle for supremacy will be interesting following the discard kicking in. Frida Winzell and Sofia Lundgren count 14 , 7, 11 whilst Johanna Frisk and Sofia Lewerin have 2x9 as their best results today. Meanwhile Malta’s Andrew and Michela Mifsud will be aiming high tomorrow with big improvements in each race today.

Briefings do seem to work on the whole as only one boat suffered a six point penalty for failing to tally in. Alternatively it also seems wise to avoid the inevitable result of one boat today that started with the wrong fleet, not once, not twice, but for all three races. Also hard luck for Guus Dutilh who became so seasick that his helm headed for the steadyness of the beach for him to relieve his nausea. Fair play of the day to Tim Bilborough for realising in race two that he had missed a mark out in race one, fessed up to it at the end of race two and consequently transformed the result to the noblest of DNF’s. Great sport cobber!

Results – Top ten:

Rank	Tally	Flight	Nat	Sail No	Helm Name	Crew Name	Q1	Q2	Q3	Total	Nett
1st	146	Red	FRA	4576	Louis Chambet	Lucas Tissot	3.0	1.0	1.0	5.0	5.0
2nd	44	Red	GBR	2686	Matt Whitfield	James Taylor	1.0	2.0	5.0	8.0	8.0
3rd	151	Blue	IRL	4734	Robbie King	Josh Atherton	7.0	1.0	1.0	9.0	9.0
4th	135	Yellow	ITA	4913	Leonardo Stocchero	Gianluca Virgenti	1.0	1.0	8.0	10.0	10.0
5th	131	Yellow	ITA	2592	Margherita Porro	Frederico Scanzi	6.0	2.0	3.0	11.0	11.0
6th	160	Blue	GBR	3357	Tom Darling	Will Dolin	1.0	6.0	5.0	12.0	12.0
7th	41	Red	GBR	1883	Harvey Martin	Will Ward	4.0	3.0	6.0	13.0	13.0
8th	28	Yellow	GBR	3360	Jemima Lawson	Jenny Cropley	8.0	4.0	2.0	14.0	14.0
9th	6	Blue	GBR	4627	James Hutton-Penman	Tom Jayasekara	3.0	2.0	10.0	15.0	15.0
10th	141	Red	ESP	4810	Albert Gelp	Mart Serr	6.0	7.0	2.0	15.0	15.0

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