Francisco Cosentino (ARG) is Cadet World Champion

by Hamish Stuart, on 11 Aug 2007 Argentinian Francisco Cosentino won the last race of the sixth Cadet World Championships to retain his world title in the face of a strong challenge from countryman Francisco Gojenola. Cosentino, with crew Sancho Castro, pulled a fourth race win out of the hat and Gojenola, with his crew Agustin Romero, could only manage a ninth place, for last year’s champion to win again by a margin of four points.

The two 17-year-olds had been neck and neck all the way through the week in North Wales at the Pwllheli Sailing Club venue on the Lleyn Peninsula, and it had been Gojenola who led going into the final race on the last day. Cosentino could have won the title by sailing his rival down the field, but instead the bold policy of going all out for a win paid off.

'We had a clean start from the committee boat end and then just got the first few shifts,' he said. 'We rounded the top mark in third with our rival back in the twenties, so at that point we had the title. On the second beat we again had good speed and a few shifts so that put us into first. Gojenola climbed but fortunately could not get back from the twentieth at the first mark, so only made it to 9th and the title was ours.'

Gojenola will rue making a mistake in race 10 where what looked like a certain fourth was turned into a disaster as he hit the finishing mark. Doing his turns he again crossed in tenth but only after the finish realised that he had failed to complete his penalty and so had to retire. A fourth finish then would have given him the title!

There was then a margin of 53 points to the third placed boats of Poles Michal Tomaszewski and Agata Tomaszewska, who held onto a place on the podium by finishing eighth in the only race on the last day.

A disappointing final race saw South coast sister and brother pairing Katrina and Christopher Brewer narrowly miss out on a world championship sailing medal in North Wales, though Katrina did finish as the top girl helm.

The Parkstone Yacht Club duo saved their second worst performance until last, finishing 27th when it turned out they needed a top seven finish to claim third place at the Cadet World Championships in Pwllheli. Instead they finished fifth overall, though Katrina had the consolation of finishing as the top girl helm in the world championships. They had started the day in fourth place, just one point behind the Polish boat.

However they had a disastrous start to her chance of securing a medal and rounded the first beat with only seven boats behind her.

'We climbed for the rest of the race and got back to 27th but that was not enough as the other two polish boats in contention for a medal were 8th and 10th,' she said ruefully. 'Still, we had a great event and we are pleased with our fifth and the fact that I am leading female helm. I won’t be going to Medemblik in Holland for next year’s event as I plan to sail 420's.'

Fellow Parkstone pair Joanna Freeman and Holly Francis finished eighth – a tremendous achievement for the club to have two boats in the top 10 in the world.

Amy Seabright and Hannah Muskett from East Coast club Corinthian Otters finished 13th, while Joshua Pistol of Parkstone and Jack Wilson of Surrey club Frensham Pond were 16th. Charlie Matthews and Chris Sycamore of Corinthian Otters were 19th, clubmates Tye Wichard and Ben Thame 24th and Peter Lawrance (Corr) and Ole Alcock, also from Parkstone, finished 25th.

Oliver Herve and Alex Warrington of Corinthain Otters finished 31st, Chris Griffiths and Eleanor Hinde of Frensham Pond were 33rd and Chris Videlo and Maddy Harris of Waldringfield were 39th.

In the Promotional Regatta run alongside the Worlds GBR came out on top with Tom Kinver and Jamie Proffit winning by a considerable margin from James Howard and Pole Iwona Gilets. James 15 crewed by nine year old Jamie had a great regatta. 'It just clicked for this event and we were very consistent with great speed. We won four of the final races including the last race so were really pleased,' said Kinver.

In the Novice regatta it was again the girls who came out on top with Anna Davies and Sarah O'Brian from Fishers Green in North London who came out on top with again a string of firsts.

Designed as a lead into the more serious Promotion Event and the World Championship, Davies said 'It’s my first year sailing and I only took up helming after crewing for a month, so we had a great time. We would have liked stronger winds but we have made loads of friends from all over the world and had a great time.'

Pwllheli now has its own fleet of Cadets as the club has used the impetus from hosting the Worlds to encourage its young sailors to get involved. They were rewarded with this encouragement by Siwan Roberts and Iolo Bry Roberts finishing second in the Novice fleet.

Siwan Roberst said 'Its been great, so many countries sailing against us out in our bay. It’s our first event but it was so much fun. We have a fleet of Cadets now here in Wales and we plan to do more events as we get better in the future.'

Cadet Worlds - Final overall positions

1 8087 ARG Francisco Cosentino Sancho Castro 27
2 8054 ARG Francisco Gojenola Agustin Romero 31
3 9354 POL Michal Tomaszewski Agata Tomaszewska 84
4 9462 POL Mateusz Giemza Pawel Glowicki 92
5 8997 GBR Katrina Brewer Christopher Brewer 95
6 9127 POL Pawel Wysocki Piotr Szlachcic 97
7 8518 BEL Quinten Lauwers Nele de Munck 99
8 9575 GBR Joanna Freeman Holly Francis 123
9 9488 POL Artur Ponieczynski Michal Rola-Janicki 129
10 9472 ARG Candela Pineyrua Josefina Subias 139
11 8043 ARG Gonzalo Cosentino Lucas Cabral 143
12 9085 ESP Rodrigo Abalo Joaquin Minones 148
13 8520 GBR Amy Seabright Hannah Muskett 150
14 9520 AUS Elliott Noye Ellie Chesterman 155
15 9065 POL Lukasz Kawinski Damian Frank 158
16 735 GBR Joshua Pistol Jack Wilson 178
17 4541 ARG Victoria Realli Etchart Camila Agnoletti 183
18 3502 ARG Juan Pablo Alvarez Gallesio Maria Josefina Tonelli 187
19 8570 GBR Charlie Matthews Christopher Sycamore 192
20 6005 AUS Lucy Shephard Lydia Newton 198
21 9489 POL Szymon Wierzbicki Krystian Dziubinski 200
22 8066 ARG Martin Travascio Santiago Romero 203
23 9554 HUN Vince Grafel Gergo Boisos 205
24 6994 GBR Tye Wichard Ben Thame 206
25 7335 GBR Peter Lawrance Ole Alcock 211
26 9499 ESP Eliezer Fernandez Alvarez Javier Perez Mortiney 221
27 5712 AUS Tom Ransley Sophie Chesterman 225
28 4593 ARG Belen Tavella Felicitas Roldan 233
29 9514 POL Pawel Cherubin Damian Zdancewicz 237
30 8008 ESP Julia Marfil Daza Cristina Laucirica 257
31 9029 GBR Oliver Herve Alex Warrington 272
32 8060 ESP Marta Hdez de la Miguera Maria Leon Lainez 273
33 8529 GBR Chris Griffiths Eleanor Hinde 278
34 8697 ESP Oscar Gomez Juan Silva 285
35 8443 BEL Wouter de Munck Joke Lakiere 289
36 9503 HUN Peter Foloksi Daniel Boisos 303
37 9136 BEL Karen Hellemans Lore Hellemans 306
38 9555 HUN Anna Balogh Tamas Galgoczy 306
39 8514 GBR Chris Videlo Maddie Harris 313
40 9528 AUS Joel Aulich Jarad Cavanagh 321
41 5751 AUS Thomas Kelly Tristan Witty 339
42 8909 BEL Toon de Munck Hendrik Panneel 345
43 8775 ESP Tomas Moya Tian Feliv de Cabrera 352
44 9553 HUN Dominik Grams Luca Mako 369
45 8889 GER Oliver Mienert Jakob Stuhamn 392
46 9523 AUS Samuel Duncan Lewis Duncan 397
47 9325 HUN Gergely Petrahai Viktor Maki 398
48 8661 ESP Gabriela Torres Miguel Gaya 407
49 9470 CZE Michaela Koranova Sara Tkadlecova 416
50 9502 HUN Bence Ory Marton Munka 418
51 9585 RUS Artem Materov Sergey Shaymin 433
52 9439 RUS Alim Bezbekov Ilya Nefodin 443
53 9228 NED Hero Zijlker Marc van Unnik 463
54 9040 NED Floris Van Hemert Jan van Wassenaer 468
55 8562 NED Gabriela Ververs Philine Pels Rijcken 473
56 8425 BEL Lode de Munck Kamiel Klumpers 489
57 4118 AUS Callam Wilkinson Jessica Case 494
58 9640 CZE Jiri Paruzek Katerina Halova 499
59 9494 NED Maurice Bakker Jan Wanders 503
60 9645 BLR Dziana Tsialezhnikava