2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Weymouth – The Wrap

by Rob Kothe Sail-World.com on 16 Jun 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Weymouth and Portland, the second World Cup sailed under the new restricted field format wrapped up on Sunday with ten Medal Races deciding the podium finishers, Abu Dhabi World Cup Final qualifiers and prize money recipients.

Nacra 17
The Weymouth and Portland medal races were sailed on the Olympic 2012 Inner harbour course underneath Nothe Hill.

The Nacra 17 race, the first of the day was sailed in the dying land breeze. With small gusts delivering major positional changes through the race, the Italians led from Austrians at the top mark, but the Austrians were one of two team OCS.

Overnight leaders Australian Nacra 17 sailors 22-year-old Jason Waterhouse and his cousin 23-year-old Lisa Darmanin found pressure on the right sailed from the back of the fleet into a gold medal position, third from the back of the fleet.

After their win was confirmed Waterhouse commented, 'It was really tricky, we backed ourselves, with wind coming at the right. We sailed most conservatively this week. Definitely more disciplined, while in past we tended to hit the corners. Waterhouse wrapped up ‘We set a goal early this year to win two World Cups, we won in Melbourne, and now here. We want to win the World Championships now.'

Matias Buhler and Nathalie Brugger (SUI) were ready to pounce on the Aussies if they slipped up. Waiting in the wings they came through directly behind Waterhouse and Darmanin which handed them silver.

Darren Bundock and Nina Curtis (AUS) were in top form and came through in second. This was enough to promote them up into bronze medal position after Thomas Zajac and Tanja Frank (AUT), who occupied the final podium spot overnight, were on the course side at the start and penalised with 22 points added to their tally.

Laser Radial

After the Nacra 17’s completed their medal race in the dying morning breeze, the clearing skies and sunshine halted proceedings for a while.

Then came the new breeze.

From the start, the odds were heavily stacked in Marit Bouwmeester's (NED) favour in the Laser Radial after a commanding week of racing.

She held a very healthy 15-point advantage over Evi Van Acker (BEL) and only a near disaster could have seen her knocked off her perch.

Van Acker set off with all guns blazing, starting at the committee boat, she was on port quickly and led at the top mark, with Bouwmeester mid fleet still in the Gold medal position.

Alison Young (GBR), who was fifth at London 2012 has started the medal race in bronze medal position was disastrously penalised for infringing the Dutch sailor, Van Acker took the gun from Anne Marie Rindom (DEN) confirming Van Acker’s silver medal. Bouwmeester sailed steadily, finishing fourth which was more than enough for gold.

'It has been a really good week for me,” commented Bouwmeester. 'I had some steady results and I was happy to take it in today during the Medal Race.

'I had five first places and two seconds and that was my best scorecard ever, so I am very pleased with that, that's results wise but today's sailing was a little less brilliant and still a lot to work on.'

Anne-Marie Rindom second place gave her the bronze medal.

Laser

A tight Medal race, with a number of competitors mathematically in with a chance of taking the medals.

Germany's Phillip Buhl clinched gold in the nerve-racking race. He finished in third but had World number one and pre-event favourite Tom Burton (AUS) to thank for him taking gold after he finished in between Buhl and pre-race leader Matt Wearn (AUS).

19-year-old Wearn needed to make up one more spot to pick up gold, but Burton held him off on the run to the finish ensuring he missed out by a single point, resulting in silver.

Nick Thompson GBR, Tom Burton started well as did Matt Wearn but London 2012 Laser silver medallist Cypriot Pavlos Kontides was first to the top mark. Behind him was Kiwi Andrew Maloney with 19-year-old Matt Wearn (AUS) in third place. Croatian Tonci Stipanovic the overnight leader was buried back in the fleet.

Down the last run, the Cypriot was clear but Burton, Maloney, Buhl, Wearn were bow to stern when not overlapped.
At the gun Kontides won from Maloney, then Buhl just ahead of Burton and Wearn. As a result, Wearn missed out on Gold by a point and had to be content with silver.

After racing Buhl said, 'For myself, the discard in the second race [a 28] made it hard for me to get a medal but I managed to stay consistent through the week and in with a chance for the Medal Race. It turned out to be a gold one which is incredibly surprising.

But there was no disappointment for Matt Wearn, who sailed a strong regatta and was very happy with the silver.

“It was a tight battle all the way around, losing positions and gaining positions everywhere. It was just the race to the bottom gate on the last downwind that really made the difference. Unfortunately, Buhl just had a little bit more legs on me on the downwind but at the end of the day I’m pretty stoked to come away with a second, which is a good step.”

Tonci Stipanovic (CRO) had led overnight but struggled in the Medal Race, taking a seventh to complete the podium. Pavlos Kontides (CYP) finished fourth.

Men's 470

A major upset this week when Stu McNay and Dave Hughes (USA) sealed gold in style in the Men's 470. They took a comfortable Medal Race victory to finish 21 points ahead of Mat Belcher and Will Ryan (AUS).

'It feels awesome and it is a good return for both of us and a great way to close it out,” commented Hughes.

'It feels great to win at the previous Olympic venue,' said McNay, a two-time US Olympian (Beijing 2008, London 2012). 'We all left Weymouth in August 2012 feeling kicked in the teeth. It is rewarding when hard work starts to pay off.'

McNay added, 'We have been knocking on the door for a while and it is great when hard work pays off. We have been sailing a lot and working with each other a lot in this and other classes and it feels good to close out this regatta.”

The Americans have been consistently at the top of the pack throughout the week with only a 17th looking out of place from eight top five results.

Mat Belcher and Will Ryan (AUS) surprising finished eighth in the Medal Race to take silver whilst Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis (GRE) advanced to third overall after Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic (CRO) finished tenth in the Medal Race.

Despite this being the third second place for the Belcher and Ryan at a World Cup after Miami and Hyères, the Olympic gold medallist was confident about their Rio campaign: Belcher said ‘“We’re very competitive and we want to win every event, or at least perform at our top in every event. And to come away with the second is always a bit hard. It’s been three seconds now, against different guys at the past three World Cups. ‘

Women's 470

The last time Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark (GBR) and Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (NZL) did battle in a Women's 470 Medal Race in Weymouth and Portland it was for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Aleh and Powrie took Olympic Gold, but the placings were reversed at the ISAF Sailing World Cup regatta. It was all about the start Mills and Clark led the fleet off the line, with the Kiwis having a poor start. The British pairing stayed ahead of the Kiwis throughout the duration of the race and with their fourth, compared to the Kiwis fifth, they sealed the deal.

'I think we still feel gutted after the [Olympic] Games that we basically lost control of that race and it was a bit passive and there was no race,” commented Clark.

'We were definitely up for a fight today and having a good race and a good battle. We were strict on ourselves about what we wanted to do and we managed to pull it off.”

Aleh and Powrie were forced to make do with silver whilst bronze went the way of Tina Mrak and Veronika Macarol (SLO) following a second in the Medal Race.

Jo Aleh commented drily, ‘it’s good we still have a list of things to work on.’

Finn

European Junior Champion Jake Lilley (AUS) lead the fleet to the top mark, Jonathan Lobert (FRA) was forced to the right after a bad start, but found good pressure there.

Lobert came through to win the Medal race with Lilley second. But the action behind them was what mattered.

Giles Scott (GBR) kept Josh Junior (NZL) at bay in the Finn to extend his unbeaten run. There was just six points of separation in advance of the Medal Race and the Briton forced the Kiwi down the back of the pack in an intriguing race.

The pair was close throughout and both were penalised with penalty turns. With the pair at the rear of the fleet, Scott stayed on top of Junior to keep him at bay. Even though Junior came through in ninth compared to Scott's tenth, it was enough for another Finn gold for Scott. Junior settled for silver with Andrew Murdoch (NZL) taking bronze.

'It feels good, I'm very relieved,” said a relaxed Scott, 'It was a bit of a stressful race out there. Both Kiwis were right on my tail and I didn't make it easy getting a yellow flag and a penalty turn.

'I thought I was in a good position up the first beat but then the jury came in and gave me a penalty, which really livened it up.

'It's always a nice way to win to come out in a match race situation and come out on top but they can be a little bit stressful.”

49er

Starting the day with very healthy 18 point cushion, New Zealand's Peter Burling and Blair Tuke unbeaten since they finished behind Australians Outteridge and Jensen here in Weymouth in 2012 had a number of options of how they could tactically approach the Medal Race.

The Kiwi's decided that staying close to their nearest rivals was the best way to go as Burling explained, 'We had a little bit to do, but we had a little bit of a points gap on second so the game plan was to try and stay close to them, and we managed to put together a relatively solid result.”

Match racing their rivals Burling and Tuke were in 10th place half way up the first leg, staying with other Kiwi boat.

Up front, British crews had the lead John Pink and Stuart Bithell led at the top mark, from Dylan Fletcher Scott and Alan Sime and they were not headed during the race. Outteridge and Jensen take fourth (and sixth overall).

Burling and Tuke finished sixth, their tactics worked as their closest rivals were fellow countrymen and training partners Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski who finished a place behind in seventh.

Burling was 'stoked' with the result and the gold medal, but was even happier that they had their mates standing next to them on the podium.

Taking the bullet and sealing bronze were Great Britain's John Pink and Stuart Bithell.

49erFX

Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (BRA) took a stylish gold in the 49erFX by taking the Medal Race victory.

The Brazilians, world number one and 2014 ISAF Rolex World Sailors of the Year and Hyeres World Cup winners, trailed overnight leaders Alex Maloney and Molly Meech (NZL) heading into the Medal Race.

Not worrying about the pack behind them they took the bullet by 39 seconds and had an anxious wait until their victory was confirmed when Maloney and Meech crossed the line in ninth.

On the day Kunze said, 'we could have finished anywhere from first to fourth today depending on the positions of the Medal Race. We thought we had to put about four or five boats between us and the Kiwis and we weren't sure at the end if we had done it and we were just waiting for them to finish before we realised.

'Both us and the Kiwis had a good and pretty consistent week. We are really happy.”

Maloney and Meech picked up silver and Maloney was left frustrated after racing, 'We just didn't get the shift right today and we couldn't stay with our competitors which was a bit of a mistake and we just let the Brazilians get away from us.

'It was a pretty nice week sailing in Weymouth, we got some pretty good races in but we had a disappointing Medal Race and we can learn lot from it.”

Spain's Tamara Echegoyen and Berta Betanzos (ESP) completed the podium.

Men's RS:X

Great Britain's Nick Dempsey rounded off a solid week of action with a third in the Medal Race to seal gold. The Briton rarely finished out of the top two throughout the week and was rightly rewarded.

'For me the event has really gone to plan. It's been six or seven weeks since the last World Cup in Hyeres and I didn't do so well there so I wanted to get out on the water and perform again,” commented Dempsey, silver medallist at London 2012.

Dempsey's compatriot Tom Squires (GBR) had a medal sewn up in advance of the Medal Race with the colour to be decided. A ninth kept him in silver medal position, 18 points off Dempsey.

The battle for bronze was far from straight forward. A number of competitors had the opportunity to seize it, but Cho Wonwoo (KOR) managed to get the job done with a bullet.

Women's RS:X

Italy's Flavia Tartaglini won gold in the Women's RS:X after overnight leader Isobel Hamilton (GBR) sensationally sailed the wrong course.

Instead of heading to the leeward gate in advance of the finish she missed it and went straight to the finish line. Upon noticing her error she was forced to retire which dropped her out of the medals.

For the Italian, it was pure joy and a second behind race winner Bryony Shaw (GBR) gave her gold, 'It was a really tough race and we were really close with points,” commented Tartaglini.

'We were all really close so it was all about the Medal Race. It was really exciting. The four people who could win were all together around the first mark so it was a straight race between the four of us.”

With Hamilton out of the equation, Shaw's bullet handed her a silver medal. Tuuli Petaja (FIN) came through in bronze.

Next up for the competitors, a host of European and World titles and the Test Event in Rio, then it is ISAF Sailing World Cup Qingdao which takes place from 14-20 September 2015.
The fields for the new format World Cup events in this pre-Olympic year in Hyeres and Weymouth have been of very high quality. It remains to be seen if Qingdao and Melbourne away from the European and Brazilian axis will have improved fleets too. Time will tell!!