Defending champs off to a great start at 49er World Championship

by Craig Heydon on 5 Jan 2010
Reigning 49er World Champions Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen have got their title defence off to the perfect start, winning two of the three opening day races to lead the fleet at the 2010 49er World Championship in the Bahamas.

The Australian Sailing Team pair were instantly on the pace and opened their 2010 regatta account with a third place, quickly followed up by two firsts to finish the day with a two point lead over Great Britain’s Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes.

'Iain and I got off to a good start and we’re really happy with the day one results,' said Outteridge. 'The wind was shifting around up to 50 degrees today which made it quite tricky, we had between eight and 14 knots most of the time and the breeze was coming from all sorts of directions.'

'The course is run between the reef and the shore and it’s really shifty at the top with the breeze coming off the shore, it’s quite a short course and with 35 minute races we’re getting in a lot of laps,' he said.

The 62 entries are split into two fleets, with three races a day through until the medal race on Saturday, 9 January. The fleet is a who’s who of 49er sailing with a number of Olympic medalists and former World Champions taking part.

'With lots of up and down results for much of the fleet it certainly pays to be consistent out there,' said Outteridge. 'In the first race we were 20th at the bottom mark but worked our way through the fleet to finish third in that race. You can’t get frustrated on the course, you just have to stay calm and work through the fleet.

'We were in the tougher fleet today with six of the top ten from the last worlds, including the Italian and Spanish crews. We get re-seeded each day with first place overall going into one fleet, second and third, into the other, fourth and fifth into the first and so on,' he said.

Outteridge and Jensen have had a great start to their 2012 London Olympic Games campaign, winning all six regattas they have entered, with three of those coming on home soil in the last six weeks, being the Australian 49er Championship, Sail Sydney and the opening round of the 2009/2010 ISAF Sailing World Cup, Sail Melbourne.

'Having the three events in Australia full of close racing in the lead up to the regatta was great preparation for us, a large group of the fleet has come straight from the European winter and haven’t had a lot of racing preparation,' said Outteridge.

The pair debuted a new boat on day one of the 2010 World Championship, having only had limited time preparing it at home before it was shipped to the Bahamas a number of months ago.

'We’ve got the new Australian made Bethwaite hull, thanks to funding from the Australian Institute of Sport, which has been really good,' said Outteridge.

'There are no major differences between the new and old boats, just some small things which make them nicer to sail. The boat has been going really fast so far and it feels nice and quick, we had four days of preparation here which was very helpful, with light, medium and heavy conditions allowing us to work out our settings.'

The reigning World Champions are one of six Australian crews who have made the trek to the Bahamas, with Victorians Will and Sam Philips currently in fifth overall. The brothers had a consistent opening day, finishing with an eighth, third and second to be just three points off third position and eight behind Outteridge and Jensen.

Steven Thomas and Luke Parkinson are currently 14th, with a strong fourth place finish in the second race, while Euan McNicol and Tim Austin are 24th.

Sean O’Rourke and Harry Bethwaite are in 43rd, two places ahead of fellow Australians Andrew Chapman and Peter Kendall.

For more information go to www.australiansailingteam.com.au