Hobie Worlds Day 1 to Colby and Mattfield

by David Brookes on 9 Apr 2002 Day 1 of the Air France Open Hobie 16 Worlds was another perfect day in paradise with
sunshine and good winds on the race course. The top 48 sailors from the qualifying first round
joined the pre-seeded sailors from around the world in the start of the Open World
Championship. With 56 boats supplied by Hobie Cat Australia, and 112 teams, each team sails
in every second race for the next three days.

On the race course, the day belonged to Gavin Colby and Simone Mattfield with two first places
from their two races of the day (races two and three of the day).

The first race of the day was a very popular runaway win by local sailors Aldo Cailleux and
Estelle Rousseau who led from start to finish after several general recalls. Previous days races
had favoured the left hand side of the course so sailors keen to get to this side were pushing
the pin end of the line hard. However, the race proved them all wrong when Cailleux and
Estelle tacking early and heading out into the building trade winds on the right hand side of the
course to build up a big lead by the end of the first leg. In second place for most of the race
was the father and son team of Mitch and Taylor Booth, originally from Australia but now sailing
for the Netherlands. The practice gained from sailing and winning round one was obviously not
wasted on the team of Thibaut Vauchel-Camus and Matheas Lassnig from France who overtook
Team Booth to snatch third place in this race.

In the second race of the day, Pedro Colon and David Rodriquez from Puerto Rico lead at the
first mark from Colby and Mattfield, but were unable to hold off the Australian pair for long. On
the second upwind leg Colby and Mattfield took the lead and then stretched this out over the
next two legs to win by a comfortable margin. In the third race, Colby lead from start to finish,
although he was hard pushed by another Australian team of Rob Branch and Barnaby Houk.
This race was sailed in tough conditions with the wind being extremely unstable and several
changes in places occurred down the fleet.

Overall results are posted on the website but after three races they are not all that meaningful as some competitors have sailed one race while others have sailed two.

Racing continues in the Semi-Finals for another two days when the fleet will be cut and the top 56 teams advance to the finals.

www.hobieworlds.com