Tornado Worlds - Greeks defend title, Australia and Mixed crew follow

by Panos Marinopoulos on 18 Jun 2016 The old ones are the new ones: World Champions of the Tornado class are Iordanis Paschalidis and Konstantinos Trigonis from Thessaloniki (Greece). They impressed with a series of six wins and one fourth place. They are again World Champions of the Tornado Class.

For Paschalidis, two times Olympic Games participant, this is his sixth title – in a row! During the last racing day, Gavin Colby and Billy Leonard climbed up to rank two – the Australians now are new Vice Champions. Third overall – and also Mixed World Champions – are the Australian Brett Burvill (47) and 14 years old German Estela Jentsch from Schwangau (Bavaria). A total of 29 teams participated in the Worlds.

Two more races were sailed on Friday morning (17th June) with southerly wind up to 15 knots. In the first race Paschalidis/Trigonis finished with a huge lead, so they didn’t need to start the last race and took this at their discard. “We sailed good this week. It was a strong competition and difficult conditions. The wind was permanently changing, going up and down“, resumed Paschalidis. 'Except the weather all was very nice, also the volunteers helping us going afloat and coming in.“ In other races on Lake Constance in previous years, Paschalidis wasn’t as lucky as this time. 'I hope we have the chance to compete here in Lindau again!“

Last years Mixed World Champions, Roland and Nahid Gaebler from Bremen, couldn’t start because of a horse back riding accident two weeks before. So, this time a new crew won the title: The Australian-Bavarian team Burvill/Jentsch. They performed well in the strong wind conditions in the first race on Sunday, which was very surprising considering they had only some hours of training in light winds. “I explained all maneuvers and she followed”, Burvill said, the Tornado boat builder from Perth. The 14 years old girl was sailing Optimists and 29ers in the last years. She gained confidence quickly having experience with the multihull and the helmsman too. “She has a good feeling in light winds”, Burvill stated.

Best German team were Bob and Marc Baier from Fuessen (Forggensee). The heavy crew favoured the stronger winds on Friday, finishing twice as second. They surpassed another Greek Team: Nikolaos Mavros and Alexandros Tagarapoulos ended up on fifth place overall (all the days were sailing on second position overall). But they capsized after damaging their boat and couldn’t finish this race (like during the first race on Sunday). “We want to win! If we sail good, we can beat anyone“, Tagarapoulos said before the race – which he proved with the bullet in the last race.

Best team from Lake Constance were Markus Betz and Monica Schuster from SMC Ueberlingen ranked tenth overall. “It was always a fair race – as usual for the Tornado class”, Betz said. The Jury, presided by Sergey Kusovov (Russia), had only to rule over a small number of protests.

Best Austrian team, familiar with the waters of Lindau, were Kurt and Denise Waibel (YC Hard) ranked on place eleven.

World Champions in the category Youth are Jaqueline Feuerstein (18) and Denise Grabher (25) from YC Rheindelta, Austria.

“It was a brilliant organisation in the Lindauer Segler-Club”, stated Juergen Jentsch, president of the International Tornado Class Association. “The Lindauer Segler-Club confirmed his reputation of almost being professional the way they managed the regatta.” Everything was under control except the weather. “Even under pressure by time and circumstances the race officers – Frenchman Paul Bastard und Markus Gielen from LSC – always took the right decision”, Jentsch confirmed, who came 15th together with his wife Sarah. Actually everybody expected light wind conditions – the more surprising to see leading three teams coming from strong wind areas.

“The class rules are quite restrictive – and so was the weather during the whole week. But today however we had perfect conditions: steady southern winds on the whole course providing fair sailing conditions for all”, head of organizations Nick Jung said. “It took quite some efforts for all to manage the event ensuring that everybody would be happy at the end.” But at the end everything went well and a solution for all problems was found.



Overall

1. Iordanis Paschalidis/Konstantinos Trigonis, GRE, 10 points
2. Gavin Colby/Billy Leonard, AUS, 20 points
3. Brett Burvill/Estela Jentsch, AUS/GER, 34 points
4. Bob und Marc Baier, GER (Füssen), 41 points
5. Nikolaos Mavros/Alexandros Tagarapoulos, GRE, 44 points
6. Mirco Mazzini/Andrea Ciavatta, ITA, 58 points

Mixed (12 teams)

1. Brett Burvill/Estela Jentsch, AUS/GER
2. Maria Tsaousidou/Michaelis Papadopoulos, GRE
3. Zdenek Pavlis/Michaela Pavlisova, CZE
4. Markus Betz/Monica Schuster, GER

Youth (under 26 Jahre, only one competitor)

1. Jaqueline Feuerstein/Denise Grabher, AUT