Rio 2016 - 49erFX opens tight - 49er legends make perfect start

by 49er.org on 13 Aug 2016 Men’s Skiff – 49er

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL) made the perfect start to their competition winning both opening heats in the Men’s 49er. After a long wait for the wind to settle on the Pão de Açucar (Sugarloaf Mountain) race course, it was Jonas Warrer and Christian Peter Lubeck (DEN) who found themselves duelling with the New Zealanders at the front of the fleet.

Warrer, the 2008 Olympic Champion, looked to have got the better of the Kiwis on the final lap and was leading down to the finish when he belatedly realised he had missed out the gate mark. The Danes reluctantly but hurriedly dropped their gennaker to re-sail the course correctly, leaving the way clear for an easy opening victory for Burling and Tuke. Warrer crossed in eighth, an expensive mistake that could cost him further down the line.

In the next race the Kiwis rounded the first mark in fourth and patiently worked their way to the front ahead of the Irish pair Ryan Seaton and Matthew McGovern. At the end of a day that saw some spectacular racing in moderate breezes and beautiful winter sunshine, New Zealand holds the lead, Portugal is second and Germany is third. “We’re just happy to walk away from day one with two low scores,” said Burling, the four-time World Champion. While the Kiwi boatspeed was good, most of their winning came from picking their way through the gusts and the lulls on the tricky course. “We made our gain in that first race when we gybe-set on that first run. It felt like we found some good breeze and that helped us get out of the pack and up to the front.”

Their opening day wasn’t the way that Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (AUS) would have liked to open the defence of their Olympic title. Scores of thirteen, eight put the Australians in 11th overall. “We haven’t lost the event, but we haven’t set the world on fire,” Outteridge admitted, acknowledging they just weren’t quite fast enough out of the blocks. “A lot of it is trying to get on the first tack and getting yourself up the ladder ahead of everyone else. Both times we just missed that first opportunity.”

Women’s Skiff – 49erFX

There is no stand-out favourite for gold in the brand new Women’s Skiff fleet, and after day one of competition things aren’t much clearer. Of all the teams that might have been expected to be topping the leaderboard, few would have picked the Canadians. Yet Erin Rafuse and Dannie Boyd scored a five, four to hold a one-point lead over one of the acknowledged favourites, local sailors Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (BRA), who won the second race of the day just as the sun was setting over their home town.

Winners of the first race were Sarah Steyaert and Aude Compan (FRA) who are in third overall on equal points with last year’s World Champions from Italy, Giulia Conti and Francesca Clapcich.

The Canadians were delighted with their first day of Olympic competition. “We don’t like to get caught up in the numbers but this is definitely our best start to a regatta,” said Rafuse. “We picked the right regatta.” Boyd enjoyed the tricky racing in shifty winds. “These conditions are right in our wheelhouse,” she said. “We know we can throw the boat wherever we want to. We had good starts and were able to get on the first shift of the day and it makes the rest of the race a lot easier.”

Racing continues with both fleets scheduled to race four races on day two to catch up for missing one today. The 49erFX should be on the TV course for their debuit in Olympic prime time.

Overall Results:

49er - Men

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race													Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	MR	Total	Net
1	NZL	Peter Burling Blair Tuke	1	1												2	2
2	POR	Jorge Lima José Costa	4	4												8	8
3	GER	Erik Heil Thomas Ploessel	6	3												9	9
4	POL	Lukasz Przybytek Pawel Kolodzinski	2	13												15	15
5	IRL	Ryan Seaton Matthew Mcgovern	14	2												16	16
6	DEN	Jonas Warrer Christian Peter Lübeck	8	9												17	17
7	JPN	Yukio Makino Kenji Takahashi	3	15												18	18
8	ARG	Yago Lange Klaus Lange	11	7												18	18
9	ESP	Diego Botín le Chever Iago López Marra	16	5												21	21
10	SUI	Sebastien Schneiter Lucien Cujean	5	16												21	21
11	AUS	Nathan Outteridge Iain Jensen	13	8												21	21
12	BRA	Marco Grael Gabriel Borges	10	11												21	21
13	AUT	Nico Delle - Karth Nikolaus Resch	17	6												23	23
14	GBR	Dylan Fletcher-Scott Alain Sign	15	10												25	25
15	CRO	Pavle Kostov Petar Cupac	9	17												26	26
16	ITA	Ruggero Tita Pietro Zucchetti	7	20												27	27
17	CHI	Benjamin Grez Ahrens Cristóbal Grez Ahrens	12	18												30	30
18	FRA	Julien d'Ortoli Noe Delpech	20	12												32	32
19	BEL	Yannick Lefèbvre Tom Pelsmaekers	19	14												33	33
20	USA	Thomas Barrows, III Joseph Morris	18	19												37	37

49erFX - Women

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race													Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	MR	Total	Net
1	CAN	Erin Rafuse Dannie Boyd	5	4												9	9
2	BRA	Martine Soffiatti Grael Kahena Kunze	9	1												10	10
3	FRA	Sarah Steyaert Aude Compan	1	9												10	10
4	ITA	Giulia Conti Francesca Clapcich	3	7												10	10
5	IRL	Andrea Brewster Saskia Tidey	8	3												11	11
6	NZL	Alexandra Maloney Molly Meech	6	5												11	11
7	GBR	Charlotte Dobson Sophie Ainsworth	2	11												13	13
8	ESP	Tamara Echegoyen Dominguez Berta Betanzos Moro	4	13												17	17
9	SWE	Lisa Ericson Hanna Klinga	11	6												17	17
10	FIN	Noora Ruskola Camilla Cedercreutz	7	12												19	19
11	DEN	Jena Hansen Katja Salskov-Iversen	21 UFD	2												23	23
12	NOR	Ragna Agerup Maia Agerup	10	18												28	28
13	GER	Victoria Jurczok Anika Lorenz	21 UFD	8												29	29
14	USA	Paris Henken Helena Scutt	13	16												29	29
15	CHI	Arantza Gumucio Begoña Gumucio	16	14												30	30
16	NED	Annemiek Bekkering Annette Duetz	21 UFD	10												31	31
17	SIN	Griselda Khng Sara Tan	12	19												31	31
18	EST	Kätlin Tammiste Anna Maria Sepp	15	17												32	32
19	ARG	Victoria Travascio Maria Branz	14	20												34	34
20	JPN	Keiko Miyagawa Sena Takano	21 UFD	15												36	36