Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships - Aussies on fire

by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World.com Team on 17 Dec 2011 At Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships two Australian crews have one hand on world championship trophies after their on water performances today.

Triple Laser World Champion Tom Slingsby holds a 14 point lead going into tomorrow’s Medal round.

In shifty conditions, Slingsby sailed a tenth in his first race but his rival, 2008 Olympic Gold medallist Paul Goodison (GBR) took a flyer and bombed, sailing into 21st place a score he had to keep, thereby plunging him into fifth place. In the second race Slingsby finished 13th, his regatta drop, while Goodison finished in 11th place.

As he came up the boat ramp Slingsby was clearly angry with himself. ‘I sailed really badly. Both races I had good positions. All I needed was one good result and to sail two drops today was very frustrating when the others were back in the pack. I thought this was my opportunity to wrap it up. I should have sailed better today.

‘It was just this really light, shifty sea breeze and it never filled in properly. The first race you had to be hard one side or the other and I did quite well working the shifts and I was pretty happy to round in about tenth or so and I think I was about fifth to the bottom mark and had a real opportunity to jump. I went too much up the middle and lost both sides. Basically all day I was probably too conservative, I didn’t take any risks and I just slowly leaked points.

14 points back is Slingsby's closest rival Germany’s Simon Groteluschen and 17 points behind is third-placed Nick Thompson of Britain.

Slingtsby summed up. ‘Tomorrow will be another day. I have been in this position plenty of times before and I have more experience in this position than anyone else in the fleet. I am ready to go.'

Disappointed Paul Goodison said ‘It was a bit of a day to forget. In the first race I just got a little becalmed on the left. I felt sure that the thermals were going to swing that way but unfortunately they didn’t. In the last race I got out of the blocks quite well but I had a bit of an incident at the windward mark and that led me to do penalty turns. It is a bit difficult to gain the distance back after that.

'It’s all a learning process. I am a bit frustrated with myself today but this was never a goal event. I am still not sure what the points are like but still go out and try and win tomorrow and see where that leaves me.'

2009 49er World Champion Nathan Outteridge and crew Iain Jensen were just two points behind John Pink and Rick Peacock (GBR) going into today’s competition. After three races had been completed they had turned that deficit into a 17 point lead. Second overall are Denmark’s Emil and Simon Toft Nielsen.

On the launching ramp Outteridge commented ‘It was a tough day. I think we had pretty similar results to yesterday, all in the top ten. It is all we can really ask for. However our rivals had some average results, which made our lives much easier than I thought they would be.

‘It feels like we haven’t really sailed brilliantly yesterday or today but well enough to get in a nice position going into the medal race tomorrow.

‘Going into today it was really close, so we are happy to be this far ahead.

‘We had some nice starts in the first and second races, which set us up in the front group and took the pressure off to do anything special.

‘By starting well we were able to go on with it in the first race.

‘In the second race it got a bit tricky and we had to duck and weave a lot in the first beat but we got a nice little gap at the top mark and slid back up into the top ten.

‘For the last race we made it hard for ourselves by going back. I just didn’t want to risk it even though it turned out we were not OCS. Our drop was a thirteen, but you just never know.

‘We were able to get back into tenth and as it was a three lap race that gave us an extra lap to catch up and we just kept chipping away.

‘We are looking forward to the medal race’ concluded Outteridge.

If Outteridge wins tomorrow it will be his third world title; the first was with Ben Austin and his second with Iain ‘Goobs’ Jensen.

Great results also today from the two Australian 470 ‘Golden Girls’, 2008 Olympic Gold medal skipper Elise Rechichi and 2000 Olympic Gold medal crew Belinda Stowell.

After a horror start to the regatta, the ten week new pairing came home with a wet sail (10, 3, 5 score line) to slide into ninth place overall.

This result qualifies Australia in the Women’s 470 Class and as we understand puts this talented combination into the Australian Sailing Team.

Laser - Men's One Person Dinghy - Fleet Overall (as of 17/12/2011)
Intermediate

Place	Name	Pos	NOC	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	M	T	N
1	Slingsby Tom	Skipper	AUS	1	6	1	1	1	9	1	5	10	-13		48	35
2	Groteluschen Simon	Skipper	GER	7	1	7	4	6	1	10	11	2	-23		72	49
3	Thompson Nick	Skipper	GBR	3	6	8	2	5	8	9	1	-31	10		83	52
4	Geritzer Andreas	Skipper	AUT	1	14	3	14	1	4	5	-28	5	6		81	53
5	Murdoch Andrew	Skipper	NZL	6	7	7	4	2	10	(50) DNF	7	6	4		103	53
6	Goodison Paul	Skipper	GBR	5	8	4	1	6	1	2	-23	21	11		82	59
7	Brunning Ashley	Skipper	AUS	4	4	10	7	4	2	4	-30	17	8		90	60
8	Wigforss Johan	Skipper	SWE	8	2	9	2	2	-19	12	4	19	14		91	72
9	Burton Tom	Skipper	AUS	16	11	1	-20	3	4	3	15	9	12		94	74
10	Kontides Pavlos	Skipper	CYP	9	1	-21	1	2	14	21	2	12	18		101	80

49er - Men's Skiff - Fleet Overall (as of 17/12/2011)

Place	Name	Pos	NOC	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
1	Outteridge Nathan	Skipper	AUS	10	10	1	1	1	-13	8	5	4	10	5	8
	Jensen Iain	Crew
2	Toft Nielsen Emil	Skipper	DEN	(35) OCS	2	3	2	2	19	6	4	1	1	13	17
	Toft Nielsen Simon	Crew
3	Pink John	Skipper	GBR	3	1	16	4	12	4	1	6	2	4	9	15
	Peacock Rick	Crew
4	Burling Peter	Skipper	NZL	5	3	2	-16	6	6	3	12	3	16	11	5
	Tuke Blair	Crew
5	Warrer Jonas	Skipper	DEN	1	4	5	3	8	10	13	9	5	23	-24	10
	Hansen Soeren	Crew
6	Storck Erik	Skipper	USA	8	6	14	1	3	3	15	-20	14	9	6	3
	Moore Trevor	Crew
7	Delle Karth Nico Luca Marc	Skipper	AUT	8	5	8	12	10	15	12	18	12	12	-22	1
	Resch Nikolaus Leopold	Crew
8	Seaton Ryan	Skipper	IRL	2	4	10	7	11	12	5	5	-19	8	17	12
	Mcgovern Matt	Crew
9	Evans David	Skipper	GBR	1	7	11	9	2	8	9	1	10	-22	7	20
	Powys Edward	Crew
10	Noerregaard Christensen Allan	Skipper	DEN	12	11	4	8	1	6	6	7	-24	18	1	11
	Lang Peter	Crew