49er and 49erFX World Championships – Big breeze tests skiff-ladies

by Katy Nastro on 11 Feb 2016 Day 2 of the 2016 World Championships appeared sunny, with a chance of another windy day. The FX girls were proposed to go out at 11 am, but were held for a bit on shore due to that same old windy/wave sea state that sent the boys packing the day before.

FX
And they're off! The girls FX Sailors were sent out for the first race of the day in a breezy 16 knots. The women made it out to their designated race courses in similar wavy conditions to the day before.

The competitors were ready and raring to go with the first warning blown, but with the breeze building to 18+ at times, the race committee made an executive decision to put up the postponement flag and send the sailors in. Kahena Kunze of Brazil noted, 'We were definitely able to sail, but I think the race committee made the right decision to not start the race. It could have been bad otherwise.' Postponement came down at 2:15pm and the women were then sent back out to try, try again.

The second go at it amounted to only one race being sailed for the ladies. The afternoon breeze came down slightly - enabling the fleet on each course a decent start.

Compared with the conditions earlier in the day, most sailors felt the morning was definitely the lesser of two evils. Jena Mai Hansen and Katija Salskov-Iverson started the race with confidence and then noticed after the first upwind leg the breeze was building. On their downwind, they were able to sail deep, but after capsizing they realized sailing cautiously was better than falling to the inevitable reality of skiff sailing in waves. 'We got fifth, and we capsized on the first downwind. We thought we were being a little too aggressive, then [after the capsize] we said 'Okay we need to get into safe mode here,' and we actually managed to do fine. There was so much weed though, so it was really hard to get around. It affected our steering a lot so it made it hard to jibe.'

The Danish pair was in third going into the top mark, but after their capsize they fought against the fleet to make an impressive comeback finishing fifth on the Blue course. Jena and Katija recently finished fourth at the 2015 Worlds and are competing in this
event against two other strong Danish teams for the right to represent their country at the Olympics.

Many of the top FX boats came barreling into the finish leaving the scores a close call. Dutch sailors Annemiek Bekkering and Annette Duetz had the best performance of the day on the Yellow course, keeping their wits about them to be able to sail into first.

The German team of Leonie Meyer and Elena Stoffers charged in at similar pace, placing second overall. Both the Netherlands and Germany are using this regatta to help finalize their selections for the Rio games. Australia’s Tess Lloyd and Caitlin Elks cruised into third, with Erin Rafuse and Danielle Boyd of Canada swiftly after.

'We were fourth at the second windward leg, then hit a forest of trees at the top mark. We had no speed going into a tack because of the weeds and so we ended up capsizing, de-weeding, then had to like come back up to the mark because we had drifted so low,” said Danielle Boyd in a shivering wet state. They were able to make gains downwind securing their fourth place position across the finish line.

On the Blue course, Maiken Foght Schutt and Anne-Julie Schutt sailed their way into first with the Spanish veterans Tamara Echegoyen and Berta Betanzos very close behind. 'It was really hard to try to ride the waves, but we were happy with the result because we found in this race you just have to survive. So now, we finally start the Worlds!'

Berta Betanzos is a World Champion in the 470 class, while her crew Tamara is an Olympic gold medalist in the Elliot class. They recently finished sixth at the 2015 World Championships. Next came the top British boat of Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth, along with New Zealand's Erica Dawson and Ellie Copeland who were not present at the 2015 Worlds, but recently finished 19th at the Miami Sailing World Cup.

49er
The gentlemen trickled into the boat park with hesitation as they had a bit of a feeling the breeze would not cooperate for the ladies. Postponed on shore until 3:30pm, the sailors reached the opening of the channel to find the FX sailors cruising in marking the end
of day two.

An atypical winter for the Clearwater area, although the conditions we've seen in the last two days are sometimes characteristic of this venue. Day three will begin bright and early in the hope of giving the sailors more time out on the water to conclude their qualifying round.

Qualifying runs from the 9-11th of February. Silver and Gold fleet racing from the 12-14th with the Medal races on the 14th.