International Cadet World Championship – Foreign invasion in Hobart

by Peter Campbell on 2 Jan 2013 The International Cadet World Championship 2013 has already reached the halfway mark and so far overseas crew dominated the leader board as they hold six of the top ten positions overall with Ukrainians lording over the rest of the fleet.

Overseas crews hold six of the top ten positions overall midway through the International Cadet World championship being sailed on Hobart’s River Derwent, with the two Ukrainian crews first and second.

The 49 teenage crews left the beach early with PRO Nick Hutton planning three races this morning before the iconic King of the Derwent keelboat race starts at 2pm.

The Cadets did not race on New Year’s Day, but on Monday the Derwent again posed difficult decisions for the young sailors with many major wind shifts that proved costly for some competitors. However, the experienced sailors from the Ukraine, Great Britain and Argentina picked the shifts well.

Australia’s two top placed crews, Liam Robinson and Nathan Field from Royal Geelong Yacht Club in Victoria, and Charles Connor and Ethan Gailbraith from the Sandy Bay Sailing Club, are placed sixth and seventh overall.

Ukrainians Danyil Martynov and Pavio Merezhko scored a fifth and first to give them a net 12 points after discarding their worst race to date.

Their compatriots, Oleksandr Isarov and Andriy Kalinchuk, maintained their consistency with a second and a fourth to be on 15 points.

Third overall are the British crew of Alex Corby and Robert Keen on 26 points after a fourth and a seventh yesterday, and they are followed by Agustin Pesallaccia and Eryk Martynko from Poland who won the first race yesterday but dropped to 11th in the second of the day to put them on 32 points.

Liam Robinson and Nathan Field did not have a good day, with a DNF and a 13th place while Charles Connor and Ethan Gailbraith sailed reasonably well for a 10th and a third.

Samantha Bailey and Laura Cooper from Sandy Bay are 10th overall after a 13th and a sixth place, while Australian champions Sam Teidemann and Hugo Allison are 20th in overall standings, despite a second in race six yesterday.