State of the art racing at the Yngling Worlds

by Mattias Dahlstrom on 12 Feb 2008
Not less that four of the boats in the Yngling fleet owns a Gold Medal from the Olympic games in Athens 2004. There are numerous of World and Continental Champions from the Yngling and other classes. In fact all female gold medallists from Athens (except RSX) are right now sailing in the Yngling Worlds.

The scene was set for world class sailing with 15-18 knots building a moderate chop in the green water of Biscayne Bay. Spectators, organisers, officials and coaches enjoyed watching the wonderful show of racing and from more than one boat a grunt was heard that they wished they were racing themselves.


World Class Racing at the Yngling Worlds in Maimi

The shifts were more even over the course compared to yesterday and even if most wind shifts were not very big there were many of them. The Yngling being a very speed similar boat made the race be a mind game of strategy and tactics.

The GBR team of Sarah AYTON, Sarah WEBB and Pippa WILSON keeps the lead with a third and a second of today’s races. A coach commented that ‘it’s about keeping the number of mistakes to a minimum’. The British team just managed to most of the time be on the right side of a shift and on the inside lane up to layline.


Krystal WEIR, Carol GOJNICH and Angela FARRELL (AUS) ranked second in the regatta after two race days.

A surprise in this regatta is the performance of the Australian team of Krystal WEIR, Carol GOJNICH and Angela FARRELL. The helmswoman, Krystal, have spent only 8 weeks in the boat and is replacing Nicola BETHWAITE who tragically got injured in a biking accident. Nicola was helming the boat when the team qualified Australia for the Olympics in Cascais. Krystal WEIR was runner up to sail the Laser Radial at the Olympics and also have a Radial World Championship title. With a series of 4-6-2-3 the Australians are currently ranked second in the Worlds. The Australian Coach, Adrian FINGLAS, comments that ‘it has been a tough 8 weeks and the plan has all along been to keep it simple, sail your own race, don’t get into close fights with other teams and focus on the basics’. Something that is obviously working very good for the Australian team.


The winners of race 4 at the Yngling Worlds, Ulrike SCHUEMANN, Julia BLECK and Ute HOEPFNER (GER)

The Race Winners of today first race was Anna BASALKINA, Vladislava UKRAINTSEVA and Ekaterina MAXIMOVA (RUS). The second race was won by the German team of Ulrike SCHUEMANN, Julia BLECK and ute HOEPFNER.

Full results can be found at yngling.org.

Note: This text and images can be used with reference to yngling.org