470 Junior European Championships day 3 – Challenging conditions

by International 470 Class Association on 12 Aug 2011 470 Junior Europeans Championships are being held in Nieuwpoort Belgium. Racing for the day was ended after only one race was completed due to challenging conditions.

A race win in the bag for Gabriel Skoczek/Achille Nebout (FRA) keeps them at the front of the men/mixed leaderboard for the third day running, but Kevin Peponnet/Julien Lebrun (FRA) are chasing hard and their second place finish keeps them just a sniff away from their team mates.

Moving up a gear were Jan-Philipp Hofmann/Felix Brockerhoff (GER) who took the race win in the other men's fleet to end the day in third overall.

Continuing to hold firm within the top 10 are Argentina's Pablo Volker/Agustin Cunill Martinez with a 10th place finish. In January this year they won the 2011 420 Junior World Championships and stepped into their 470 in March. A modest pair, they did admit they were slightly surprised to find themselves doing so well in what is a highly competitive fleet where they are ninth overall.

Another new 470 pairing, last year's 420 Junior European Champions, Yoav Levi/Dan Froylich have slipped down the leaderboard as Froylich explained, 'We were eighth in the first upwind and then missed a right shift. The conditions are fun, really fun in the downwind.'

470 Men – Top 10 after six races
1. Gabriel Skoczek/Achille Nebout (FRA) - 7 pts
2. Kévin Peponnet/Julien Lebrun (FRA) - 9 pts
3. Jan-philipp Hofmann/Felix Brockerhoff (GER) - 10 pts
4. Nicklas Dackhammar/Fredrik Bergström (SWE) - 10 pts
5. Philip Sparks/Ben Gratton (GBR) - 11 pts 2
6. Matthew Crawford/Robert Crawford (AUS) - 11 pts
7. Simon Sivitz Kosuta/Jas Farneti (ITA) - 15 pts
8. Sacha Pelisson/Nicolas Rossi (FRA) - 18 pts
9. Pablo Völker/Agustín Cunill Martinez (ARG) - 19 pts
10. Magnus Masilge/Moritz Klingenberg (GER) - 19 470 Men Results - before protest

In the women's division Nina Keijzer/Anneloes van Veen (NED) finished second to retain their series lead and marginally extend their points margin over the second and third placed German teams of Annika Bochmann/Anika Lorenz and Tina Lutz/Susann Beucke (GER), who themselves remain in a points deadlock after another day of racing.

Bochmann/Lorenz and Lutz/Beucke have been in close battles for most of their 470 sailing careers, and before that in the 420, so situation unusual. But frustration for Bochmann/Lorenz who threw a race win away today, as Lorenz commented, 'We had a really good start and a really good upwind so were at the top mark in fourth or fifth. We then caught some boats on the first downwind to move into first which we held during the second upwind and reach, but then on the last downwind we capsized.' They recovered to finish fourth, but only due to the significant lead they had established for themselves prior to capsize. 'It was the fastest capsize we have ever had,' laughed Lorenz, 'we swam so fast back to the boat and as the boat hadn't capsized completely we released all the ropes and all the sheets and it was a quite fast recovery.' If they had won the race, they would have been joint series leaders with the Dutch.

But that privilege went to Sasha Ryan/Chelsea Hall (AUS) who scored their first race win to remain in fourth overall.

470 Women – Top 10 after six races
1. Nina Keijzer/Anneloes Van Veen (NED) - 7 pts
2. Annika Bochmann/Anika Lorenz (GER) - 10 pts
3. Tina Lutz/Susann Beucke (GER) - 10 pts
4. Sasha Ryan/Chelsea Hall (AUS) - 12 pts
5. Anna Burnet/Flora Stewart (GBR) - 19 pts
6. Anna Kyselova/Anastasiya Krasko (UKR) - 21 pts
7. Amy Seabright/Eilidh Mcintyre (GBR) - 26 pts
8. Victoria Jurczok/Josephine Bach (GER) - 34 pts
9. Cassandre Blandin/Charlotte Mery (FRA) - 35 pts
10. Joanna Freeman/Katie Tomsett – 37 470 Women Results - before protest

Alen Kustic (CRO) is running the races on the 470 course area and explained the decision facing the Race Committee today, 'We had quite nice conditions in the beginning for race 5, 16-17 knots before the starting sequence and by the starting gun the wind had increased to 20-21 and continued throughout the race to about 25 knots. The wind then shifted to the right and the swell had increased a lot, and we measured a couple of gusts of 30 knots or more.' Add to that a change in tide direction giving 1.5 knots of current against the wind, and 'the waves became really irregular and all over the place,' concluded Kustic.

A wise decision by the Race Committee and the 470 fleet will now race the concluding race six of the qualification series on Friday 12 August. The plan is for the 470s to be released from the boat park at 1030 hours with racing scheduled to get underway at 1200 hours to complete the qualification series.

The 2011 470 Junior European Championships are taking place together with the 2011 420 Junior European Championships in Nieuwpoort, Belgium from 7 to 15 August 2011.

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