49er/49erFX World Championship in Argentina - Overall
by International 49er Class 21 Nov 2015 23:17 PST
16-21 November 2015
The final day of the 2015 49er and 49er FX World Championship. The beautiful venue of Club Nautico in San Isidro hosted the 6 day event without a hitch resulting in 16 fairly sailed races, one newly crowned FX champion, and one long time favourite 49er boat coming in for the win.
49er
The 49er regatta was decided before the medal race even began with Burling and Tuke of New Zealand having already wrapped up their third straight 49er World Championship by a 30 point margin. They came out to battle in the medal race and took the pin to get off to a good start, ever the gamers.
The real race was for the Silver medal, with four teams within striking distance of the Silver. The journeymen Alonso brothers struggled all day, but based on the strength from their amazing day 5 they were still sitting in 2nd position, three points clear of Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen of Australia. Behind them were Heil & Ploessel of Germany and finally the Lange brothers.
The Lange Brothers followed Burling and Tuke off the pin end of the start line and headed for the left corner. Being local sailors they were betting on their experience in these waters, but it did not pay off, as the right again paid heavily leaving them well behind the fleet.
The Aussies, Spanish, and Germans all headed right a number of back markers, with the Alonsos in the controlling position. By the time they hit the corner, however, it was the Aussies who had sailed by far the best gold fleet out of anybody, and had the boat speed to get to the top mark in third overall. A funny thing happened down the first run however, as the Aussies were rolled first by the Austrians and then by another Spanish team, Botin and Turrado. The Aussies are rarely slow, so there was speculation of something being wrong as the Aussies rounded the leeward mark just ahead of the Alonso's, and falling back.
The Alonsos adopted a strategy of staying close to the Aussies, hoping they could keep the distance close and follow immediately behind them, to take the silver. The strategy couldn't hold, however, as the combination of good upwind speed for the Aussies meant the gap widened. On the final downwind, it was still all to play for. Botin and Turrado were threatening the Aussies right to the finish and the Alonsos were just behind.
At the run to the finish it was neck and neck. Nathan, cool as ever, had noticed that Dylan Fletcher and Alaign Sign of the British Sailing Team had passed the Alonsos to put yet another boat between them and the Alonsos, so the Aussies took the Silver by three points, with the Alonsos striking bronze.
The kiwis should once again be the real story leaving Argentina, with an unprecedented 22nd Olympic class victories under their belts. This surely puts them into the top echelons of Olympic class dominance with the likes of Ainsley and Scheidt, who each had exceedingly long unbeaten streaks in the Finn and Laser respectively. It's never been done quite like this in the 49er before, with three years of uninterrupted dominance. We can't overlook the advancement of Outteridge, however, who overtook illness in crew Iain Jensen early in the week to post by far the best gold fleet and fantastic upwind boat speed for all of the final day. It's not a fair thing, but if Burling and Tuke don't win in Rio, will the world recognize what they have done.
In any case, the rest of the 49er fleet has a few good chances to beat them in the run up to Rio, with major events every two month. Next up are the 2016 World Championships in Clearwater, then the European Championship in Barcelona, and finally the South American Championship in Rio only 3 weeks before the games begin.
49er Olympic Qualifiers
The end of Gold fleet secured six teams Olympic qualification, three from 49er and three from 49erFX. The 49er countries of Poland, Germany, and Argentina are all in the top 7 overall, exactly where they started the week and never seemed in doubt of losing the positions they coveted so greatly.
Heil & Ploessel from Germany started the regatta looking to cap a stand out week that now includes nation qualification and are hoping to maximize the number of selection points they can earn within the German qualification system. For the Polish, the qualification is significant, as any miss step would be a huge blow for a nation that has invested heavily in 49er sailing recently and for the most part has delivered excellent results in the previous 18 months. The Polish team of Lukasz Przybytek and Pawel Kolodsinski who've qualified their country noted, "We felt our starts were strong, but we made some bad decisions, but overall we are in the medal race and we are happy." Which ever team qualifies from Poland they will surely be looking to step onto the podium in Rio.
The final team to qualify are the local Lange brothers, whose home club hosted the event. The youngsters are following in their fathers footsteps on the Olympic path, and they too will be looking for medals in Rio. A very emotional pair were the two as they wheeled their boat into the boat park and immediately hugged their legendary father. Tears of joy flooded their faces as Yago Lange emotionally commented, "It's been a dream of for us; we've been dreaming about this for ages. I've cried many times watching my father get a medal there, and it's a long way, but I think we are closer to there [the Olympics]. Doing what we like, and doing it with my brother and with my whole family there and the town, it's amazing."
The Croatian team finishes as the 4th country, and will likely earn their berth in two weeks' time assuming no Oceania teams attend the Oceania country qualifiers at Sailing World Cup Melbourne.
49erFX
No single team managed to seize the moment and put a string of top results together resulting in the log jam at the top between 3 Danes, Brazilians, Italians, and British. Yesterday's leading Danes, Ida Marie Baad Nielson and Marie Thusgaard Olsen, fell from the lead to sixth after struggling mightily in their starts and being forced to claw back through each race today. With 6 teams within 13 points of the victory, racing came down to the wire.
With the right side of the course favoured the whole fleet started on port and drag raced to the right course. Ida and Marie (Danes), the Brazilians, the Italians and the Spanish. Jena and Katja (Danes) were forced to tack early and headed to the left, which was the last the fleet would see of them as the right side was greatly favoured.
It looked for a while like the Brazilians might have enough speed to take the group, but they fell back and the Italians surged into the lead. Down the first run there were five boats duelling and the Spanish jumped into the lead with the Italians leading around the other mark, with the Brazilians right behind them. They were no match for the Italians in terms of speed however, and the Italians powered to an emphatic victory, their second major this season after taking the European Championship.
The bronze medal was still up for grabs, and Ida and Marie sat after the finish unsure of their placing. Finally, after a day that must have been very difficult and already full of come back, they approached the committee boat to see if they'd taken a medal. Smiles burst over their faces as they realized they had secured the bronze, only one point ahead of their team makes Hansen and Iversen.
Following up in fifth pace were Dobson and Ainsworth of the British Sailing Team. Fifth is their best placing at a regatta since Ainsworth has returned from injury.
49er FX Olympic Qualifiers
In the 49erFX the picture was very murky heading into the final day to decide which team would earn the spots and it remained so through to the final race. With the breeze up, some questioned whether Argentinians Vicky Travascio and Sol Branz would falter, but they held wits and sailed the best day of anyone to secure the top country place. When asked how does it feel to not only qualify your country for Rio, but to also do it while in Argentina, a very cheerful Sol Bronz said, "It feels awesome, like we had a whole group of people cheering on us on the finish line, so it was amazing... I'm just going to rest at home for two weeks and embrace it!"
Just behind them are Singapore's Griselda Khng and Sara Tan. The Singapore squad has a number of talented sailors moving into the FX fleet and Griselda was extremely pleased to secure a spot mentioning, "It feels really good. It's been our main objective since last year to qualify here. Many mistakes were made, but many lessons learned as well, so we'll keep building everything up and hopefully prepare ourselves for the games."
The final guaranteed spot in the 49erFX came down to the protest room, in a protest between Ireland and Canada. The Irish crew were sitting in the third country position with the Canadians tied for 4th country position with the Norwegians. Canada protested the Irish for an incident in the first race of the day and won, leaving the Irish crew disqualified. Canada moved up to third country, claiming the guaranteed spot while the Irish move down to fifth in a tie with the United states. Norway and Ireland will now be watching continental qualifiers to see if there are vacancies, which there are likely to be in both Oceania and Africa.
The 2015 49er & 49erFX World Championship is in Buenos Aires, Argentina from November 16-21, 2015 The event website including results is 49er.org/event/2015-world-championship and the event is sponsored by Seiko, SAP, and Magic Marine.
Three in a row for Burling and Tuke (from Yachting New Zealand)
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have won the 2015 49er World Championship in Argentina today making it three consecutive world titles in the Olympic skiff class and extending their unprecedented unbeaten run to 22 victories in a row.
In the women's 49erFX New Zealand's Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech finished 8th overall.
Burling (24 years old) and Tuke (26 years old) had this victory in the bag with a race to spare after opening an unassailable 29 point gap after three morning races over the Alonso brothers from Spain, who struggled today.
The kiwis, described by commentators as being in a class of their own, placed 4th in the medal race to seal the deal and end the 16-race regatta 34 points ahead of anyone else.
"We're absolutely stoked to take another title," says Peter Burling. "This one has been a really tough week and I think both Blair and myself are pretty tired now which shows how tough it's been, but we are really stoked to take another title and I'm sure it will set in over the next couple of hours."
Today the gold fleet sailed three finals races in the morning in which Burling and Tuke placed 13th, 8th and 8th.
"We didn't sail super well today, which we were a bit annoyed about, but at the same time the guys that were close to us sailed worse so we ended up with a pretty huge lead again which is really nice," says Blair Tuke.
"It's really nice to win our third world title, and all in a row," adds Tuke.
It was a good day for the reigning Olympic champion crew of Outteridge and Jensen who sailed themselves back into medal contention during the morning to edge out the Spanish for the silver medal.
For Burling and Tuke, taking the silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games has motivated the pair that is unrelenting in their focus and drive towards an end goal to go one better and win Olympic Gold at Rio 2016.
Since being beaten by Outteridge and Jensen in London, (who are also campaigning towards Rio 2016), the NZL Sailing Team crew has won every 49er event they've sailed.
Earlier this month the pair took out the highest award a sailor can receive in recognition of outstanding achievements in the world of sailing, named ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year for 2015.
Tuke says, "Being named ISAF Rolex Sailor of the Year last week was pretty special and we had our heads down concentrating on this trying to get the best prepared we could, so we'll sure enjoy it with our coach Hamish [Willcox] and the rest of the kiwis here. Then we'll look forward to getting back to New Zealand and sharing it with family and friends."
The prestigious Award is decided by a vote which saw them pitted against sailors across all disciplines of the sport including Ian Walker, (skipper of the Volvo Ocean Race winning entry), Giles Scott (GBR's latest phenomenon in the Finn class) and Loick Peyron (off-shore sailing superstar), and the kiwis were humbled to be announced the winners.
Scheduling of events in the twelve months leading into the 2016 Olympic Games means that Burling and Tuke will defend this world title in less than three months with the 2016 49er and 49erFX World Championships taking place in mid-February in Florida, USA.
Before then Burling and Tuke return home for the New Zealand summer and will attend the 2015 Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards in Auckland next Friday.
Burling says, "We've got a few months at home over the summer now so it's going to be great. It's a cool time of year to be back in NZ and we really enjoy being in NZ over the summer so we're really looking forward to getting home."
Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech have finished eighth in the 49erFX World Championship. In today's morning races the kiwi women placed 2nd, 14th and 19th to go into the 49erFX medal race lying ninth overall improving to eighth after finishing third in the medal race.
"I think everyone was a bit up and down, quite a big mixture of people winning races," says Alexandra Maloney. "The fleet is getting tougher and it was really good competition out there."
Molly Meech adds, "Moving on from here obviously Rio's the big goal for next year."
"And the buildup events like the Worlds in Clearwater and then Hyeres, so trying to get on the podium in those events."
Giulia Conti and Francesca Clapcich (ITA) took overall victory in the 49erFX and their first world title after a very close battle with defending champions Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (BRA). These two close rivals entered the medal race on equal points and went on to finish first and second on the water in a grand finale in Argentina this afternoon.
Burling and Tuke's year in the 49er:
- 1st – 2015 49er World Championship
- 1st – 2015 South American Championship
- 1st - 2015 Rio Olympic Test Event
- 1st - 2015 49er Rio International Sailing Week
- 1st - 2015 49er European Championship
- 1st - 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Weymouth
- 1st - 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres
- 1st - 2015 Princesa Sofia Regatta (Palma)
- 1st - 2015 Oceanbridge Sail Auckland
- 1st - 2015 New Zealand 49er National Championships
Silver medal for Outteridge/Jensen (from Australian Sailing)
Olympic Gold medallists Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW) have won the Silver medal at the 2015 49er & 49er FX World Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Saturday (21 November). The Club Nautico in San Isidro hosted the event over six days and a total of sixteen races.
Three races in the morning of the last day of the event and posting a second, first and fourth catapulted the London 2012 Champions from seventh into third place ahead of the final top-ten Medal race in the afternoon.
With defending World Champions and Olympic silver medallists Pete Burling and Blair Tuke from New Zealand already securing the win on points before the Medal Race, the real race was for the Silver medal, with four teams within striking distance of the Silver. Going into the Medal race Outteridge and Jensen were only three points off second and a fifth place was enough to seal the deal and to secure the Silver medal.
"We started the final day in seventh and were a long way back on the points to anyone in the medals but with a good chance to moving up in the fleet. The weather was quite nice and we finally had around 15knots of breeze, it was pretty choppy and shifty and we came away with a second, first and fourth. We were a little bit surprised when we got in and looked at the point score. Many of the guys at the front had a pretty bad day and that put us into striking distance of a medal," Nathan Outteridge summed up the end of the final series and first part of the day.
"Going into the afternoon's Medal race we were sitting in third and three points off second with a couple of boats behind really tight on points. The breeze was still quite nice but a bit patchy and shifty and we sailed a calculated race to ensure we got ahead of both the Germans and the Spanish and that enabled us to move up into second overall."
It was the come back of the event and beating the odds over a tough week, which saw the pair starting the regatta back in the fleet in tricky and much lighter than expected conditions, with challenges of reading the murky waters and Iain Jensen fighting through a gastro illness.
"After a very difficult and disappointing start to the week we caught it all back and got a silver medal so Goobs and I couldn't be happier. It was very difficult sailing here in the brown waters, trying to pick the wind. And it wasn't really until today that it got a bit windier and a bit puffier so the wind was quite visible out there. Obviously it was a bit disappointing to not win, but considering where we were two days ago it's been a great effort," Nathan Outteridge said.
"For these worlds the goal was always to get on to the podium. We want to beat Pete and Blair without a doubt and we want to start winning events but to do that you consistently need to be on the podium and have to sail well all week long and unfortunately we only really sailed well in the finals. But it was nice to sail well under some pressure at the end of an event and move up the fleet and it's nice to know that we haven't lost our touch."
It was a challenging week with many sailors across the international fleet falling ill with stomach and gastrointestinal issues and with the less clean than predicted water targeted as the reason. This made the success in the end extra valuable as crew Iain Jensen explained:
"There was a stomach bug going around and the time I got it was unfortunate as it was after the first day of racing. I had a few days where I was crook and a bit feverish and really struggling to hold any food down, so I was a bit low on energy during racing. A third of the fleet had the same thing and it's been a bit of a tough one for many of the guys sailing here."
"Stomach bugs have been an issue here and also can be in Rio and this shows it could be a showstopper for a team if they get a serious one before the Olympic Games. Everyone will have to be careful and follow the right precautions, that's for sure," Iain Jensen added about the South American water challenges.
"Nath did a great job, getting the boat ready each day and letting me rest for as much as I could so I wasn't too exhausted by the end of the day. But I've been a bit better over the last couple of days. To go into the final day in seventh and to come away with a Silver medal is more than we expected from our start of the final series and we're stoked. We had a bad qualifying but a great final series and I think we won the series on points, which I take as a real positive."
Outteridge and Jensen will now head back to Bermuda to re-join their Artemis Americas Cup team before heading to Rio in December for more 49er training.
"For us it's all about the preparation in the lead up to Rio and the conditions here have been very different to what we will experience in Rio," Nathan Outteridge said. "We're heading back to Rio to do some more training and to do an event there in the middle of December. Then we'll take some time off over Christmas before preparing for the Miami World Cup at the end of January and the Worlds in Clearwater, FL in February."
Outteridge and Jensen were the only Australian crew qualifying for the top-ten Medal race after Australian Sailing Squad's Will Phillips and brother Sam just missed out after finishing a strong final series in overall eleventh. Australian Sailing Team's Joel Turner (QLD) and crew Lewis Brake (QLD) finished the regatta in 16th with David Gilmour (WA) and Rhys Mara (VIC) following in 24th.
Three final series races were also completed in the 49erFX on the final day with Tess Lloyd (VIC) and Caitlin Elks (WA) posting a 14th, 20th and seventh place, which were not enough to climb up the ladder and into the Medal race.
"We went into the day in 14th and finished in 14th. We would have liked to get into the top ten Medal Race, but there was one good race where we were doing well and we had some equipment failure and in another we missed one of the shifts. But overall today I think we actually sailed quite well, especially with our upwinds playing the right hand side of the course," Tess Lloyd said.
"The regatta was a lot lighter than we expected and like so many others we got quite sick at the start after swallowing some of the water and lost a lot of weight, but ironically in the end that was actually ok as it was such a light regatta.
Once again the regatta highlighted some areas for us we need to work on when we get home for our summer in Australia. And we'll be ready for the next Worlds in February."
The 2015 49er/FX World Championships are the men's and women's skiff season highlight and a total of four Australian Sailing men's skiff crews are competing in Argentina including Australian Sailing Team's (AST) Olympic gold medallists Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW), David Gilmour (WA) and Rhys Mara (VIC) as well as Joel Turner (QLD) and Lewis Brake (QLD). Australian Sailing Squad's Will Phillips (VIC) is joined by his brother Sam Phillips (VIC). The 49erFX crew of Tess Lloyd (VIC) and Caitlin Elks (WA) complete the Australian contingent in Argentina.