49er and 49erFX Worlds - Champions crowned in Marseille

by Canadian Sailing Team on 1 Oct 2013 Champions have been crowned and boats packed up in Marseille at the 49er and 49erFX World Championships. After some thunderstorm delay, the finals were held in a three race theater style series. New Zealand crowded the podium taking first and second place in the 49er fleet followed by FRA in third.

New Zealand also captured gold in the FX fleet, with Brazil and France filling out the top three.

1st NZL Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech
2nd CBVELA Martine Soffiati and Grael Kahena Kunze
3rd FRA 871 Sarah Steyaert and Julie Bossard

1st NZL Tauranga Peter Burling and Blair Tuke
2nd NZL Royal Akarana Yacht club Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski
3rd FRA Aix les bains Manu Dyen and StéphaneChristidis

On the Canadian front, Erin Berry and Lauren Laventure were very pleased with their performance of acheiving gold fleet and said 'We had a great qualifying series, got into gold fleet, and got to sail against the best in the wold right now. The gold fleet racing was challenging, but just what we needed to really see what we need to work on back home in training.'

Erin Rafuse and Danielle Boyd placed ninth in the silver fleet with moments of strength this week and areas that will be improved upon when they return to training home base.

49er team Ladha and Inkpen certainly experienced a week of ups and downs including a day one gear failure that set them well back in the qualifying series with not enough time to regain positioning. They finish off their event in 49th overall of 96 boats. Other members of the team, Mori/Barnes sailed in the bronze fleet and will be hoping to improve on these results going 49er Canadian Sailing Team website