420 Class Open World & Ladies Championships - Finals Series

by Tony Mapplebeck on 1 Aug 2010
420 Class Open World and Ladies Championships - Two of the four Final Series days’ racing are now completed.

In the Ladies’ Championship, Roberto Caputo and Bernedetta Barbiero of Italy, with two bullets on Thursday, have moved into the lead, 10-points ahead of the USA team, Morgan Kiss and Katia Da Silva, who, in turn, are just a point ahead of the British Rebecca Kalderon and Katrina Brewer.

Meanwhile in the Open Championship, Justin Liu and Sherman Cheng of Singapore have led throughout the Finals so far, amassing a 16 point lead. Over the two days the order of the leading sailors has remained pretty constant over the two days, with Edoardo Mancinelli Scotti and Leonardo Cucchiara of Italy in second overall on 31 points and the Thai team, Navee Thamsoontorn and Atiwat Chomtongdee in third on 40 points.

Day 1 of the Finals was pretty challenging for the Race Committee and the sailors alike. Indeed, all parties puzzled into the night about the causes of what had been happening on the water. With a very large number of general recalls, in some cases with most of the Fleet across the line at the start, and recurrent recourse to the black flag, this was a difficult and long day. In race 2 of the Open Gold Fleet there were 19 boats black flagged, and 11 in the Ladies Gold Fleet race 3. With a plea from the RaceOfficer to the sailors at the following morning’s Coaches’ Briefing to exercise restraint, there was not one general recall on the second day, only one postponement and any OCS were handled individually. With good long races all starting on time, the Race Officer brought all the Fleets home earlier than the first day. On Friday morning, he thanked the sailors, through their coaches, expressing his pleasure at an enjoyable day’s racing from the perspective of the Race Committee.

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Appearing strongly among the leaders in the Finals are Navee Thamsoontorn and Atiwat Chomtongdee of Thailand. Thailand coach, Jaano Kempo, speaking on Finals Day 1, confirmed that their goals this year were a top ten results in the Worlds and success in the Asian Games to be held in China in November, so their performance here in Haifa was 'better today'. The sailing conditions here in the Finals are similar to home at Pattya, with a shorter chop and reducing wind. 'This is only the sailors’ second regatta with a large fleet, and so it has been a steep learning curve a nd last year’s Worlds the only real preparation for the starts here. We are more prepared this year, having learnt all we could from last year’s experience and applied this here in Haifa'.

With longer and deeper experience of large fleets in Europe and in Australia, Justin Liu of Singapore, with his long-term colleague, Sherman Cheng, won the Junior Europeans in Medemblik in 2007 and have a string of titles to their name. They hope to sail in November’s Asian Games to defend their 420 title there, but, meanwhile, evidently have the World championship very much in their sights. Justin, always careful in his assessments, both on and off the water, says, 'So far, so good. This is a long regatta, anything can happen, but we will do our best!'. Winners at Kieler Woche this year, they seem to be on good form anyway.

We caught up with some of the sailors in the Ladies’ Gold Fleet. After the first day of the Finals, the USA team, Morgan Kiss and Katia Da Silva were moving up the leader board after the Qualifiers, by last night reaching second overall. Katia, speaking of the first day, said the conditions had been pretty light, but they had great gains with a 2,1 only to have a BFD in the third race, which they looked forward to discarding the next day, if possible. The second of the three leading and experienced Italian women’s teams, Christina Celli and Silvia Morini have also been progressing up the scoring. These days ' we are having lighter winds – in theory good for us – but the wind is not stable, and we lost places in the last race. But we like it in Haif!'. Augustina Barbuto of the US Virgin Islands, with helm Nicole Barnes, they lie sixth after race 6, also spoke of the lighter winds in the Finals, than in the Qualifiers. More used to the heavier winds at home, she agreed that 'we are doing well here. After the ISAF Youths in Istanbul, where the winds were very light - weird – here in Haifa is a lot like home'.

In the Ladies’ Silver Fleet, there is a special phenomenon, all the four top boats are from Italy. We caught up with the girls at a hilarious coach briefing, creating much noisy laughter, in Haifa Sailing Club’s square before the third days racing. Evidently, although disappointed that they 'should have been in the Gold Fleet' (well, they would said that wouldn’t they!), spirits are high as they go out for the penultimate day. What is their secret? – 'we have Ferraris in our tanks!' (we are inviting the Measurer to make a special inspection, of course!).

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Yamit Day at the Worlds
Friday is a special day here – not only at this critical stage in the hotly contested competition in all the Fleets, but also because one of the sponsors is laying on a party for all on the 'Quiet Beach' tonight (not so quiet already as the disco is testing the music!). Eitan Friedlander, Managing Director of Yamit, the Israeli Marine and Yacht Suppliers, is a special sort of partner for this event, as a former 420 World Champion! He was here first thing to award the leaders’ shirts before the Ladies went on the water, and we caught up with him for a brief word before he supervised the setting-up for the party.

Eitan Friedlander learnt sailing as a child at Bat Yam, outside Tel Aviv. His father was the Israeli Olympic Coach at the Munich Olympic Games In Kiel, and Eitan was to follow his steps as Head Coach in 1996. Most of his competitive sailing was with Shimon Brokman, becoming ISAF Youth World Champions in 1972 in the 420, winning the Europeans in 1976 and the World championships in 1980, having already won the 470 Europeans in 1979, before representing Israel at the 1984 Olympic Games. He also spoke of the importance to his sailing, and he believes to all sailors, of team racing – 'vary tactical, educational, learning control, working strategically, good for team working', counteracting the tendency to individualism in sailing. Still competing today – in catamarans and in ‘big boats’ where Eitan is the current National Champion, Eitan’s pride at 'completing the circle, from his early learning in 420s and subsequent competitive successes and work as a coach, to now being a partner in bringing the 420 World championships to Israel is 2010.

And the Ferrari-fired Italian women!
The Ladies Silver Fleet, as we go to press, is dominated by Italian women’s teams: Ilaria Paternoster and Benedetta Di Salle, Elena Berta and Giulia Tisseli, Giulia Lantier and Martha Faraguna (ITA) and Chiara Maglocchetti and Jessica Conti. Their secret, they insist, is to have a Ferrari in the tank!

Top 15 Open after Finals Race 6:
1 Justin Liu and Sherman Cheng (SIN) 15 pts
2 Edoardo Mancinelli Scotti and Leonardo Cucchiara (ITA) 31 pts
3 Navee Thamsoontorn and Atiwat Chomtongdee (THA) 40 pts
4 Francesco Falcetelli and Gabriele Franciolini 44 pts
5 Guillaume Pirouelle and Valentin Sipan (FRA) 50 pts
6 Pablo Volker and Agustin Cunill Martinez (ARG) 55 pts
7 Jordi Xammer and Joan Herp (ESP) 69 pts
8 Benjamin Grez and Carlos Vergara (CHI) 74 pts
9 Wataru Saito and Yuya Yamaguchi (JPN) 75 pts
10 Ian Barrows and Ian Coyle (ISV) 77 pts
11 Georgios Vasilas and Stamatia Fragiadaki (GRE) 86 pts
12 Gal Cohen and Hadar Moran (ISR) 89 pts
13 Asenathi Jim and Ashwynn Daniels (RSA) 91 pts
14 Yoav Levi and Dan Frouliche (ISR) 96 pts
15 Alexander Coyle and Alecsander Tayler (ISV) 104 pts

Top 5 Silver after Finals Race 6:
1 James Hayward and Tim Carter (GBR) 38 pts
2 Tim Gratton and Ed Riley (GBR) 40 pts
3 Joao Villas Boas andTomas Camelo (POR) 40 pts
4 Gordon Nickel and Daniel Hoffmann (GER) 47 pts
5 Andrew Molleros and Charles Peck (USA) 67 pts

Top 15 Ladies after Finals Race 6:
1 Roberta Caputo and Benedetta Barbiero (ITA) 23 pts
2 Morgan Kiss and Katia Da Silva (USA) 33 pts
3 Rebecca Kalderon and Katrina Brewer (GBR) 34 pts
4 Nikole Barnes and Agustina Barbuto (ISV) 46 pts
5 Christina Celli and Silvia Morini (ITA) 49 pts
6 Barbara Cornudella and Sara Lopez (ESP) 56.3 pts
7 Cassandre Blandin and Marion Leprunier (FRA) 60 pts
8 Carlota Massana and Ana Lobo (ESP) 63 pts
9 Joanna Freeman and Hannah Mitchell (GBR) 68 pts
10 Maelenn Lemaitre and Aloise Retornaz (FRA) 69 pts
11 Amy Seabright and Hermione Stanley (GBR) 78 pts
12 Anna Burnet and Flora Stewart (GBR) 88 pts
13 Pauline Mazzochi and Gwenaelle Berhault (FRA) 90 pts
14 Clara and Lucie Scheiwiller (FRA) 92 pts
15 Svenja and Weger and Wiebke Lechler (GER) 93 pts

Top 5 Ladies’ Silver after Finals Race 6:
1 Ilaria Paternoster and Benedetta Di Salle (ITA) 25 pts
2 Elena Berta and Giulia Tisseli (ITA) 29 pts
3 Giulia Lantier and Martha Faraguna (ITA) 31 pts
4 Chiara Maglocchetti and Jessica Conti (ITA) 45 pts
5. Laliv Tauber and Inbar Gidron (ISR) 48 pts


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More details:
Championship website: http://www.haifa420-worlds2010.com
Class website: http://www.420sailing.org