470 Worlds - Force 470 (NZL) Report

by Andrew Brown + Jamie Hunt on 31 Aug 2005 The 2005 World 470 Champs ended on Sunday. Since then we have packed the boats and gear into a 40 foot container to be shipped back to New Zealand as well as returning home ourselves arriving a few hours ago.

Force 470 ended the regatta in 25th spot overall, and was 15th nation (being the top NZL boat).

San Francisco was a great, tough, punishing venue with big currents, and shifting strong winds. A little mistake tactically and you knew it was a mistake with big losses as well as gains to be made.

Two days in this seven day regatta cost us many points and therefore placing’s overall, while the rest of the regatta was relatively consistent.

These World Championships mark the beginning of the new four year cycle and what is noticeable when you look at the overall results is that in the gold fleet it is the countries with a strong Olympic Training Squad that are the countries with the majority of their teams in the this top fleet. This now includes New Zealand.

All the thanks for this achievement goes to Daniel Smith, Leslie Egnot and the great vision of the new staff at Yachting New Zealand. Having three boats in gold fleet shows what has been achieved in a short period of time.

Next time we just need to finish higher up the ladder! With doing these Worlds we have put a post in the ground and can now plan and see where and how to move forward.

We now have some time off to reflect on the regatta and to plan our way ahead with our firm vision on Beijing China 2008. We need to be able to get all the pieces in place if we are to move forwards over the next 3 years.

All our thanks goes to our great sponsors/supporters as well as family for making this trip to San Francisco possible.