49er/FX World Championships - Outteridge/Jensen in action on final day

by Cora Zillich on 22 Nov 2015 Olympic Gold medallists Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW) have won the Silver medal at the 2015 49er and 49er FX World Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Saturday (21 November). The Club Nautico in San Isidro hosted the event over six days and a total of sixteen races.

Three races in the morning of the last day of the event and posting a second, first and fourth catapulted the London 2012 Champions from seventh into third place ahead of the final top-ten Medal race in the afternoon.

With defending World Champions and Olympic silver medallists Pete Burling and Blair Tuke from New Zealand already securing the win on points before the Medal Race, the real race was for the Silver medal, with four teams within striking distance of the Silver. Going into the Medal race Outteridge and Jensen were only three points off second and a fifth place was enough to seal the deal and to secure the Silver medal.

“We started the final day in seventh and were a long way back on the points to anyone in the medals but with a good chance to moving up in the fleet. The weather was quite nice and we finally had around 15knots of breeze, it was pretty choppy and shifty and we came away with a second, first and fourth. We were a little bit surprised when we got in and looked at the point score. Many of the guys at the front had a pretty bad day and that put us into striking distance of a medal,” Nathan Outteridge summed up the end of the final series and first part of the day.

“Going into the afternoon’s Medal race we were sitting in third and three points off second with a couple of boats behind really tight on points. The breeze was still quite nice but a bit patchy and shifty and we sailed a calculated race to ensure we got ahead of both the Germans and the Spanish and that enabled us to move up into second overall.”

It was the come back of the event and beating the odds over a tough week, which saw the pair starting the regatta back in the fleet in tricky and much lighter than expected conditions, with challenges of reading the murky waters and Iain Jensen fighting through a gastro illness.

“After a very difficult and disappointing start to the week we caught it all back and got a silver medal so Goobs and I couldn’t be happier. It was very difficult sailing here in the brown waters, trying to pick the wind. And it wasn’t really until today that it got a bit windier and a bit puffier so the wind was quite visible out there. Obviously it was a bit disappointing to not win, but considering where we were two days ago it’s been a great effort,” Nathan Outteridge said.

“For these worlds the goal was always to get on to the podium. We want to beat Pete and Blair without a doubt and we want to start winning events but to do that you consistently need to be on the podium and have to sail well all week long and unfortunately we only really sailed well in the finals. But it was nice to sail well under some pressure at the end of an event and move up the fleet and it’s nice to know that we haven’t lost our touch.”

It was a challenging week with many sailors across the international fleet falling ill with stomach and gastrointestinal issues and with the less clean than predicted water targeted as the reason. This made the success in the end extra valuable as crew Iain Jensen explained:

“There was a stomach bug going around and the time I got it was unfortunate as it was after the first day of racing. I had a few days where I was crook and a bit feverish and really struggling to hold any food down, so I was a bit low on energy during racing. A third of the fleet had the same thing and it’s been a bit of a tough one for many of the guys sailing here.”

“Stomach bugs have been an issue here and also can be in Rio and this shows it could be a showstopper for a team if they get a serious one before the Olympic Games. Everyone will have to be careful and follow the right precautions, that’s for sure,” Iain Jensen added about the South American water challenges.

“Nath did a great job, getting the boat ready each day and letting me rest for as much as I could so I wasn’t too exhausted by the end of the day. But I’ve been a bit better over the last couple of days. To go into the final day in seventh and to come away with a Silver medal is more than we expected from our start of the final series and we’re stoked. We had a bad qualifying but a great final series and I think we won the series on points, which I take as a real positive.”

Outteridge and Jensen will now head back to Bermuda to re-join their Artemis Americas Cup team before heading to Rio in December for more 49er training.

“For us it’s all about the preparation in the lead up to Rio and the conditions here have been very different to what we will experience in Rio,” Nathan Outteridge said. “We’re heading back to Rio to do some more training and to do an event there in the middle of December. Then we’ll take some time off over Christmas before preparing for the Miami World Cup at the end of January and the Worlds in Clearwater, FL in February.”

Outteridge and Jensen were the only Australian crew qualifying for the top-ten Medal race after Australian Sailing Squad’s Will Phillips and brother Sam just missed out after finishing a strong final series in overall eleventh. Australian Sailing Team’s Joel Turner (QLD) and crew Lewis Brake (QLD) finished the regatta in 16th with David Gilmour (WA) and Rhys Mara (VIC) following in 24th.

Three final series races were also completed in the 49erFX on the final day with Tess Lloyd (VIC) and Caitlin Elks (WA) posting a 14th, 20th and seventh place, which were not enough to climb up the ladder and into the Medal race.

“We went into the day in 14th and finished in 14th. We would have liked to get into the top ten Medal Race, but there was one good race where we were doing well and we had some equipment failure and in another we missed one of the shifts. But overall today I think we actually sailed quite well, especially with our upwinds playing the right hand side of the course,” Tess Lloyd said.

“The regatta was a lot lighter than we expected and like so many others we got quite sick at the start after swallowing some of the water and lost a lot of weight, but ironically in the end that was actually ok as it was such a light regatta.

Once again the regatta highlighted some areas for us we need to work on when we get home for our summer in Australia. And we’ll be ready for the next Worlds in February.”

The 2015 49er/FX World Championships are the men’s and women’s skiff season highlight and a total of four Australian Sailing men’s skiff crews are competing in Argentina including Australian Sailing Team’s (AST) Olympic gold medallists Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW), David Gilmour (WA) and Rhys Mara (VIC) as well as Joel Turner (QLD) and Lewis Brake (QLD). Australian Sailing Squad’s Will Phillips (VIC) is joined by his brother Sam Phillips (VIC). The 49erFX crew of Tess Lloyd (VIC) and Caitlin Elks (WA) complete the Australian contingent in Argentina.

The 2016 49er/FX World Championship will take place in Clearwater, Florida from 7 – 14 February 2016.

2015 Laser Radial World Championships – day 2

In other World title events Australian Sailing Squad’s Ashley Stoddart (QLD) is currently ranked 33rd at the 2015 Laser Radial World Championships Oman after two days and four races in the 100-strong fleet.

The wind played true to form with a light breeze in the morning forcing a short postponement on day two of the event but finished off with winds up in the mid teens.

“It was another tricky day with mixed results, a 39th and 11th. The first race was light and by the second race we got to stretch the legs but the racing didn't become anymore straightforward than the first. But happy to keep chipping away day by day as this regatta is a long one,” Ashley Stoddart said.

Sunday will see the final Qualifying Series races (five and six) take place. The start time is scheduled for 1300 local time (20:00 AEDT) and once again the fleet will split into Yellow and Blue groups. The qualifying series results will cumulate to determine the overall rankings for dividing the fleet into gold and silver final series fleets.

Australian Sailing Squad’s Ashley Stoddart (QLD) as well as former Australian Sailing Team sailor and London Olympian Krystal Weir are contesting the event, which also provides the opportunity for Australia to secure country qualification in the Laser Radial for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The final chance to qualify the boat class for Australia will be at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Melbourne mid-December.

Results 2015 49er/FX World Championships (as of 20 November 2015):

Men’s Skiff – 49er

- Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW) – AST: 10, 5, (UFD), 7, 17, 27, 2, 2, (17), 9, 6, 2, 2, 1, 4, 5 – second
- Will Phillips (ASS – VIC/VIS) and Sam Phillips (VIC): 12, 22, 10, 3, (BFD), 12, 6, 9, 21, 7, (23), 8, 9, 18, 2 – 11th
- Joel Turner (AST – QLD/QAS) and Lewis Brake (ASS – QLD/QAS) – ASS: 27, (UFD), 11, 1, 4, 2, 23, 12, (24), 12, 8, 19, 3, 7, 16 – 16th
- David Gilmour (WA/WAIS) and Rhys Mara (VIC/VIS) – AST: 5, 16, (16), 10, 15, 13, 5, 11, 8, 20, 11, 21, 21, (24), 13 – 24th

Women's Skiff – 49erFX

- Tess Lloyd (VIC/VIS) and Caitlin Elks (WA/WAIS) – ASS: 11, 10, 12, 3, (16), 2, 9, 2, 18, 3, 18, 19, 14, (20), 7 – 14th