Delta Lloyd Regatta - French are proving the teams to beat in Nacra 17

by Delta Lloyd Regatta on 21 May 2014

Nacra 17 - 2014 Delta Lloyd Regatta, day 1 Sander van der Borch http://www.sandervanderborch.com

The ever growing Nacra 17 fleet is one of the largest this week at the Delta Lloyd Regatta with 35 entries, and arguably one of the strongest teams here is the British squad which has five boats competing.

Three of them are in the top 10 in the world rankings, though with most of the class still on a steep learning curve, they have to continually improve to stay ahead of the game to remain competitive.

Pippa Wilson, part of the 2008 Yngling British gold medalist crew, returned to Olympic sailing last year, and was instantly attracted by the Nacra 17. Sailing with John Gimson, she reflected on the depth of talent in the whole team.

'We are lucky with the amount of experience and talent in the team. That comes from a lot of years of hard work and so it’s really about the people involved. Everyone is really committed and willing to put in the time. We are also lucky to be well supported and we have a very good coach.'

'We have a few things to catch up with in terms of catamaran stuff, but all the sailors are pretty experienced. The learning curve is still very steep. The boats are pretty challenging to sail and obviously everyone is improving at a pretty quick rate. Every day you think you know what is going on and then it is different again, so it’s definitely a challenge in that respect. You have to take the good with the bad. But they are really great boats to sail, a new challenge.'

World number two Ben Saxton, who made the switch to Nacra 17 from the 470 in 2012, is sailing with Hannah Diamond. He said, 'I think one of our team strengths is that we don’t really care what the breeze is. We are pretty quick regardless.' They also took the silver in last year’s world championship are the top ranked team here this week.

Nacra 17 fleet - 2014 Delta Lloyd Regatta, day 1 © Sander van der Borch http://www.sandervanderborch.com

'You are learning something new every day. Something comes up that you haven’t quite felt before or seen or worked out. So it’s basically getting more and more fine tuned. And the fleet is always getting better so you need to get the fine tuning sorted, otherwise you have a day like we had today.'

On being part of a big team, Wilson added, 'It’s a huge strength being able to train hard together and push each other and we all know we are all in it to get each other better.'

Meanwhile, the 2010 Match Racing World Champion and 2012 Olympian Lucy Macgregor has also made the switch to the Nacra 17. Macgregor and Andrew Walsh are currently the top British boat this week, sitting in third overall after winning the second race. Showing the depth in the team, the second British boat is Rupert White and Nikki Boniface. White brings a generation of cat sailing heritage to the team with both his father and grandfather being Olympians in the Tornado class. His grandfather, Reg White, of course, won gold in 1976. Wilson and Gimson ended the day in 10th, while Saxton and Diamond are down in 16th.

As expected the French are proving the teams to beat with world champions Billy Besson and Marie Riou on equal points with Franck Cammas and Sophie de Turckheim at the top of the leaderboard after day one.

Darren Bundock and Nina Curtis - 2014 Delta Lloyd Regatta, day 1 © Sander van der Borch http://www.sandervanderborch.com

Nacra 17 - 2014 Delta Lloyd Regatta, day 1 © Sander van der Borch http://www.sandervanderborch.com

N17 Results

Rank	Sailnumber	Crew		R1	R2	R3	Points
1	FRA1	BESSON Billy	RIOU Marie	3	3	7	13
2	FRA077	CAMMAS Franck	de TURCKHEIM Sophie	5	5	3	13
3	GBR056	MACGREGOR Lucy	WALSH Andrew	12	1	4	17
4	AUS064	BUNDOCK Darren	CURTIS Nina	7	15	1	23
5	NED243	GROENVELD Renee	KROL Steven	1	14	8	23
6	FRA078	LAUGIER Flora	BEDLLET Valentin	15	7	9	31
7	FRA199	PETITJEAN BACKES Ingrid	BACKES Olivier	4	2	26	32
8	GBR120	WHITE Rupert	BONIFACE Nikki	21	6	6	33
9	DEN082	CHRISTIANSEN Lin Ea Cenholt	THOMSEN Anders	2	13	19	34
10	GBR058	WILSON Pippa	GIMSON John	13	8	13	34
11	FRA063	OGEREAU Audrey	VANDAME Matthieu	19	18	2	39
12	GBR182	PHIPPS Tom	PASCOE Zennor	20	10	15	45
13	FRA083	DOMAND Vincent	MERELLE Fanny	22	11	12	45
14	AUS133	WATERHOUSE Jason	DARMANIN Lisa	14	20	11	45
15	NED214	MULDER Mandy	de KONING Coen	25	17	5	47
16	GBR2	SAXTON Benjamin	DIAMOND Hannah	8	25	18	51
17	GRE210	BEKATOROU Sofia	TRIGONIS Konstantinos	23	12	17	52
18	SUI041	BUHLER Matias	BRUGGER Nathalie	OCS	4	14	54
19	ARU212	van der VELDEN Nicole	VISSER Thijs	17	21	16	54
20	NZL222	JONES Gemma	SAUNDERS Jason	9	22	24	55
21	DEN17	NORREGAARD Allan	JUST EMSVANG Line	11	OCS	10	57
22	USA27	MENDELBLATT Mark	MENDELBLATT Carolina	6	33	25	64
23	FRA065	VAIREAUX Moana	AUDINET Manon	OCS	9	22	67
24	HUN218	VIRAG Flora	GECSE Balazs	16	28	29	73
25	AUS067	PIETROMONACO Pip	WIERZBOWSKI James	24	30	20	74
26	NOR196	MARTINSEN Nicholas Fadler	MORTENSEN Martine Steller	28	16	32	76
27	NED81	DELNOOZ Elke	van LEEUWEN Jeroen	DNF	19	21	76
28	AUS105	WALKER Evan	GILBERT Annalise	10	32	OCS	78
29	BRA1	FREITAS Clinio de	SWAN de FREITAS Claudia	29	23	27	79
30	GER061	HEEG Finn	BAARS Merle	27	24	28	79
31	GBR152	CLIFFORD Alicia	BRUTON Thomas	31	26	23	80
32	RUS022	DZHENBAEV Sergey	IVANOVA Daria	18	29	OCS	83
33	DEN187	ANDREASEN Anette Viborg	CHRISTENSEN Martin Hjortlund	26	27	30	83
34	NED005	CLEEREN Koen	HEIJSTEK Charlotte	30	31	31	92
35	MON007	MEDECIN RODELATO Blandine	RODELATO Jean	32	34	33	99

Legenda

(...)	Discarded Race
BFD	Black flag discardible Disqualification
DNC	Did not come to the starting area
DNF	Did not finish
DNS	Did not start
DPI	Discretionary Penalty
DSQ	Disqualification
OCS	On the course side of the starting line
RAF	Retired after finishing
RDG	Redress given