Wild winds at Hobie Worlds

by Diana Bogaards on 30 Oct 2005 Wild winds again, on Saturday France and Tahiti won the first race in the open qualifier round for the seventeenth Hobie Cat 16 Worlds in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Both teams, Alban Bruna / Jean Bernaz (FRA) and Telva Veronique / Kaya Guillain (TAH), gained convincingly their first victory. Although the conditions looked perfect this morning, they became rough again and further racing was abandoned.

Race one: After yesterday’s complete cancellation of competition due to a 40 knots offshore wind, today started with a nice breeze from almost the opposite direction. It increased very quickly before the first start and already shifted to the north-west.

The starting gun was fired at 10:00 hours AM, with about 20 knots of wind and it continued to build up. Most of the teams went to the left side of the course. Only six decided to try their luck on the right, which did not pay off. The H16s that took a long starboard tack also fell behind, but the ones that took an early flier came out best. Bruno and Bernaz were first at the upwind mark: ‘We kept this position throughout the race. It was difficult sailing with high and short waves.’

They finished about three hundred metres ahead of the runners-up, Fletcher Warren and Georgia Myers from New Zealand.

Meanwhile, eleven crews out of forty-three gave up due to the wild conditions. Boats were blown over and the beach master warned the competitors of the next race: ‘The wind and surf are picking up. If you do not feel comfortable, do not go out. If you want to reef your mainsail, there are ropes available.’
Race two

During the boat swap, the H16s were tuned for high winds, as it had increased up to 30 knots in gusts. Some of the teams did reef their mainsail. All of them were allowed to leave the beach at 11:15 hours AM, whereafter the struggle against the elements started.

The conditions were rough and required a very good teamwork. Veronique Telva and Guillain Kaya from Tahiti knew how to play this game and took the lead pretty soon. Skipper Telva: ‘We are used to sail in these conditions, although it is normally a little bit less extreme at home. We did not have a good start, since we missed the five minutes signal, but we have been in first position all the time.’

According to Telva, they were one or two minutes ahead of Mark Laruffa (ITA) and Joshua Selig (RSA). Telva: ‘In the end, we had difficulties to find the finish line. They shortened the race, so the gate was gone. We stopped and looked around, before we knew where to go.’

After his arrival back on the beach, experienced Hobie 16 sailor Mark Laruffa explained that it was really scary: ‘The waves just smashed your feet off the boat. The wind must have been easily 35 knots. I have never depowered my side stays that much.’

The South African ladies Belinda Hayward and Kim Wilkinson-Davies, silver medallists in the Women World Championship, performed a remarkable feat by finishing in third position. Twenty-seven teams out of forty-three completed the race.

Sunday will be the last day of the open qualifier with 83 teams, representing nineteen countries. On Monday October 31st, the semi-finals will start.

Results, please surf to www.hobieworlds.com.