ISAF Sailing World Cup Palma 2013 - US bags bronze on final day

by Dana Paxton on 7 Apr 2013 ISAF Sailing World Cup Palma 2013. On the final day of racing at 44 Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofia MAPFRE 2013, US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider’s Anne Haeger and Briana Provancha captured a bronze medal in Women’s 470. Additional top-10 U.S. results include: Stuart McNay and David Hughes, seventh in Men’s 470; Sydney Bolger and Sarah Lihan, ninth in Women’s 470; Farrah Hall, ninth in Women’s RS:X; and Sarah Newberry and John Casey, 10th in Nacra 17.

Performance highlights:

In the Women’s 470, Anne Haeger and Briana Provancha went into the medal races in fifth overall, with a possibility of earning a medal. They staked their claim early, winning the first of two races. They finished seventh in the next, locking in a bronze medal.

'We were more focused on improving race to race, rather than the overall results,' said Haeger. 'We are happy to prove ourselves in the fleet and climb up the ranks in the next couple of regattas.'

Haeger and Provancha graduated last year from Boston College where they were members of the school’s sailing team. They credited that experience. 'We knew we had a big college sailing benefit for us,' explained Provancha. 'Shifty, puffy, which is pretty much what New England sailing is all about. We were really lucky to have a solid four years of that and it really helped us out.'

The next regatta for the two is the Spring Cup, a five-day regatta before ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres, to prepare for the European season.

Gold and silver went to Brazil and Great Britain, respectively.

Sydney Bolger and Sarah Lihan had a great day as well, marking their first regatta as a team. 'We had some moments of glory and moments of not so glory,' said Lihan after racing. 'We had pretty good speed when the breeze was up but we were struggling through the transitions. It left us a lot of concrete things to work on moving forward.'

In the first medal race, they started toward the boat end of the starting line. 'We had great speed and executed a great start right off the line' said Lihan. 'We were doing really well, two thirds up the beat the breeze changed. It went from being very solid, small oscillating breeze to a breeze with a lot of holes and very squishy. That needed to change the game plan and we were a little slow to get onto the new program.' They finished in eighth and went on to finish ninth in the final race.

Altogether Lihan said that they were pleased with their performance regardless of the overall results. 'We refrained from making any numerical place goals going into this,' she said. 'We wanted to work on some skill sets and we definitely achieved those goals. We have some more work to do moving forward and are excited to get that hammered out.'

To listen to the interview: US Sailing Team ISAF World Cup Palma

In the Men’s 470, Stuart McNay and David Hughes won the only race as the race committee only managed to complete one race due to dying wind.

McNay explained the keys to the win. 'We had heard that the left side had been stronger in the women’s race and as we were doing our own warm up there were left shifts and right shifts and we liked the left a little more,' he said.

'The first start of the race was abandoned from a big lefty and they dropped the pin down. Then a right shift came so the boat was favored but the pin was empty. We thought that would be a good opportunity to start lifted to leeward toward the next expected header.

'We were able to execute that and linked the shifts up the beat and be in first place at the mark, and over the course of the race fended off a couple of challenges and we were fortunate to end with a win.'

They finished seventh overall in the 68-boat fleet.

To listen to the interview: US Sailing Team Palma Men 470 Medal Races

In the Nacra 17, Sarah Newberry (Miami, Fla.) and John Casey (Longwood, Fla.) collected a pair of the 10th place finishes and ended the regatta in 10th overall.

Farrah Hall finished ninth to eighth in the medal races to come ninth overall in RS:X Women’s.

'We’re pleased and feel like we made some good progress,' said Charlie McKee, High Performance Director, US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider. 'And we recognize that we have a long way to go, and it’s going to take a lot of dedicated work.

'It’s the start of the European season and the teams that came here now can go back and focus on their training with an increased ability to target the training for what their weaknesses are and things to work on. It was a good season check in and I think people are taking the lessons and already thinking about how they’re going to use them domestically.'

To listen to the full interview with Charlie McKee Charlie Mckee Sound Cloud

Next up for US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider is ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres in Hyeres, France, April 20-27.

Overall position, class – sailors (hometown)

7th, 470 Men - Stuart McNay (Providence, R.I.) and David Hughes (Miami, Fla.)* - 68 boats
3rd, 470 Women - Anne Haeger (East Troy, Wis.) and Briana Provancha (San Diego, Calif.)* -
9th, 470 Women – Sydney Bolger (Long Beach, Calif.) and Sarah Lihan (New York, N.Y.) * **
23rd, 49er - Fred Strammer (Nokomis, Fla.) and Zach Brown (San Diego, Calif.)* - 74 boats
35th, 49er - Ryan Pesch (Vineyard Haven, Mass.) and Trevor Burd (Marblehead, Mass.)* - 74 boats
42nd – Brad Funk (Miami, Fla.) and Erik Aakhus (Corona del Mar, Calif.)** - 74 boats
28th, 49er FX- Kristen Lane (Tiburon, Calif.) and Christine Neville (Oakland, Calif.) ** -36 boats
11th, Finn – Caleb Paine (San Diego, Calif.)* - 72 boats
44th, Finn – Gordon Lamphere (Lake Forest, Ill.)*- 72 boats
12th, Laser - Charlie Buckingham (Newport Beach, Calif.)* - 119 boats
82nd Laser – Erik Bowers (Excelsior, Minn.) – 119 boats
10th, Nacra 17 – Sarah Newberry (Miami, Fla.) and John Casey (Longwood, Fla.) – 34 boats
9th, RS:X Women – Farrah Hall (Annapolis, Md.) – 28 boards

* Denotes member of US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider
** Denotes member of US Sailing Development Team