Flying Dutchman: Hungarian crew win 13th World title
by Yachting New Zealand 24 Feb 2019 05:10 PST
25 February 2019
Flying Dutchman World Championship 2019 - Nelson Yacht Club - February 2019 © Graeme Robertson
The Hungarian crew of Szabolcs Majthenyi and András Domokos, confirmed their status as the world's best Flying Dutchman sailors when they won their 13th title in Nelson yesterday.
The Hungarians, who won their first world title in 1994, are considered to be the outstanding team of the post Olympic Flying Dutchman era and illustrated that again over five days of racing at the Nelson Yacht Club.
The pair never finished outside the top two and won five of the nine races to finish four points ahead of Germany's Kay-Uwe Ludtke and Kai Schafers. The Dutch pairing of Enno Kramer and Ard Geelkerken a further six points back in third.
Szabolcs and Andras also collected the FD Silver Sombrero Challenge Trophy for the lowest score without discard.
Three New Zealand combinations finished in the top 10 of the 41-boat fleet, with Paul Scoffin and Brendan Heussler the best placed in seventh overall. Andrew McKee and Dave Hislop, who had earlier won the national title, were eighth.
The world championships were notable for the wide range in the age of participants - the youngest team in the fleet had a combined age of 30 years and the oldest of 143 years - but also family connections with fathers and sons, fathers and daughters and in-laws. There was also one female combination and three female helms.
The event finished in relatively benign conditions, with an 8-10 knot breeze and slight sea swell, which contrasted with earlier in the regatta when strong winds buffeted the course.
The Flying Dutchman was the two-handed Olympic class from 1960 to 1992. New Zealand won a Gold Medal in the FD at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.
Full results click here