2015 49er and 49erFX Europeans - Australians finished in fourth place

by Cora Zillich on 13 Jul 2015 2015 49er and 49erFX European Championships - Olympic gold medallists Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW) have finished just outside the podium in fourth place at the Open European Championships, which wrapped up in Porto, Portugal overnight (Sunday, 12 July).

They went into the final day in the lead but a few tactical errors racing off the coast of Porto on the large Atlantic swells led to average scoring in the last three races. An 11th, 17th and 15th place saw them drop back to finish the event in fourth, just two points outside of the medal ranks.

Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen had a week of ups and downs at the European Championships (7-12 July), which saw them start out in fifth on day one before dropping back into eleventh at the end of the qualifying series. The pair then managed to move back up into fourth on the first day of final series racing, with their arch-rivals and current World Champions Pete Burling and Blair Tuke from New Zealand in the lead.

An eventful penultimate day then saw NZL leaders Pete Burling and Blair Tuke knocked off the top of the leaderboard after a successful protest by Outteridge and Jensen. The Aussies were sailing upwind out of the leeward gate when the Kiwis, below the layline as they were dropping their gennaker, fouled the 2012 Olympic Champions.

The Kiwis’ subsequent disqualification dropped them to third overall, seven points behind the Aussies who assumed the championship lead ahead of the last day.

But this lead proved not enough against the Kiwis who had two second places and a race win on the final day to take home the overall win.

“It was a tough event with trying conditions sailing out on the ocean but for most of the regatta we sailed really well. We got ourselves into the lead going into the final day and unfortunately today we had a really bad day,” Nathan Outteridge said after racing.

Self-critically he added - “We weren’t making good decisions, we weren’t pushing it to get out to the right hand side of the course, which was favoured and found ourselves fighting in the pack the whole time, which is always a difficult position to be in. We ended up with a high score in all three races and that dropped us off the podium. The way we sailed today we didn’t deserve to be on the podium, so we’ll have a lot to look at.”

“This was the last event for us in Europe this year. After a second in Hyeres and sixth in Weymouth we were looking to try and get back up on to the podium at this event. But reflecting on the event as a whole, I think it was really good for us to sail well here, all but the last day, which gives us a lot of confidence for Rio next month.”

In other Australian results David Gilmour (WA) and Rhys Mara (VIC) had also qualified for the top-25 gold fleet and finished the event in overall 18th.

“There were some positives to take away from the event, but we were hoping to do a bit better than how we ended,” David Gilmour said. “It was a very competitive fleet and the racing in gold fleet was incredibly difficult. This was last event of our European stint and we’ll head to Rio next to check out the venue and for some training with Nathan and Goobs. After that we’ll have a bit of a break and train in Australia for our World Championships in Argentina in November.”

Queenslanders Joel Turner and Lewis Brake had a strong last day which in included a race win and third place to finish sixth in the Silver Fleet and thus 31st overall.

“Coming into the Europeans we thought we would have a good regatta as we were sailing fast in training and everything was going quite nicely. But we were making a few too many mistakes in the qualifying series and once you get too deep in the qualifying series it makes it really hard to come back out. We finished up quite well on the last day and will be looking to work hard for our Worlds in Argentina.”

Victorians Will Phillips and James Wierzbowski finished Bronze fleet in eighth, thus 60th overall.

The 49erFX finished the regatta on Saturday with a 19th place for Haylee Outteridge (NSW) and Caitlin Elks (WA). This was the first event for the pair after Haylee Outteridge paired up this week with her training partner Caitlin Elks, after stepping in at the last minute for Tess Lloyd who is back in Australia recovering from a broken foot sustained in the recent Weymouth ISAF World Cup Event.

The 49er Open European Championships wrapped up a series of Class Championships around the world which will be taken into account for the selecting the Australian team to contest the 2015 Rio Test event. The team will be announced on 15 July 2015.



Australian Sailing at the 49er/FX Open European Championships
(6-12 July 2015) – as of 13 July

Men’s Skiff – 49er

- Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW) – AST: 3, 15, 2, 3, 2, 4, 4, 13, (22), 13, 2, 5, 4, 4, 9, 11, (17), 15 – fourth
- David Gilmour (WA/WAIS) and Rhys Mara (VIC/VIS) – AST: 10, 1, 22, 5, 5, 5, 15, (22), 6, 1, 17, 16, 10, 14, 16, 19, 12, 12 – 18th
- Joel Turner (AST – QLD/QAS) and Lewis Brake (ASS – QLD/QAS) – ASS: 14, (19), 18, 15, 7, 18, 1, 17, (BFD 28), 1, 6, 7, 14, 14, 13, 1, 3 – 31st
- Will Phillips (VIC/VIS) and James Wierzbowski (VIC/VIS) – ASS: 22, 24, 20, 10, 21, 18, 13, 15, 9, (BFD 28), 4, 11, 12, 4, 5, 16, 19 – 60th

Women's Skiff – 49erFX

- Haylee Outteridge (NSW) and Caitlin Elks (WA/WAIS) – ASS: (16), 9, 11, 14, 6, (UFD21), 9, 9, 6, 17, 11, 4, 17, 21, 21 – 19th