Breiana Whitehead makes 2022 Formula Kite Worlds Gold Fleet in challenging conditions
by Anna Zyk/Australian Sailing Team 13 Oct 2022 22:46 PDT
11-16 October 2022
Day three - 2022 Formula Kite World Championships © Robert Hajduk / IKA media
Thursday's racing at the 2022 Formula Kite Worlds gave the 150+ athletes their first tase of Cagliari's tricky north-westerly offshore breeze. The fading wind was made even more challenging for the racers with the buildings lining the coastline, with the race committee ending up sending the men away for two races and the women just the one.
Breiana Whitehead (Australian Sailing Squad) managed to perform well in the Green Fleet's only race of the day, where she battled some of the top Formula Kite riders including the 5-time World Champion Daniela Moroz. Whitehead finished fifth, ahead of Gisela Pulido Borrell and Jessie Kampman, who both finished on the podium at the recent European Championships.
Breiana demonstrated strong skills after getting away to a great start. "The start was pretty good, I managed to get a spot and it worked pretty well," said Whitehead. "I had options the whole first upwind, so I was trying to stay in the front and sail clean. It was important to stay in the pressure, link it up and make sure you were not going through too many holes."
British athlete Ellie Aldridge won in the other fleet, perhaps showing the benefits of the British Sailing Team having camped at the World Championships venue in the past and getting a feel of the wind and really learning the wind patterns.
"Today were not typical conditions, so it's hard to tell whether it was practicing more at this location or having more practice racing in big fleet at the Europeans," admitted Breiana, who made into the Gold fleet positioned 10th overall. "For me it was definitely more of an advantage to do more racing."
Back ashore everyone was guessing whether it was the game of skill and sailing knowledge or luck today. There have been some unfortunate moments with riders catching a plastic bag on the foil or having someone crash right in front of them, halting their momentum.
Scott Whitehead (ASS) said that it was a bit of both; "It was so shifty today, you could go from first to last and back again within an upwind. You didn't know what was going to happen. It was good to be lucky or skilled, but if you were both then it was a win. It was challenging conditions today, but probably my favourite style of racing."
All fleets raced on simple two upwind/downwind laps with no reaching legs due to the shifting winds. The Race Committee did a great job by making it as simple as possible to give an opportunity to run at least some racing before the split to Gold, Silver, Bronze fleets.
Scott battled the conditions to post a tenth and a seventh today, leaving him just three points short of qualifying for the Gold Fleet. With six races overall, unfortunately, the competitors didn't get the second discard, which could have helped Scott to qualify for the Gold fleet.
Speaking about Scott's performance, coach Shane Smith commented: "Scott showed some really good improvement and skills, but the fleet quality here is so good that there are a lot of guys who are the Gold fleet contenders that have missed out. Scott has got an opportunity to race against some guys worthy of Gold fleet and get more race experience to continue his development."
Hector Paturau (Australian Sailing Futures), Alexander Landwehr (ASF) and Zac Pullen (AUS) all raced in the other fleet. The riders enjoyed the flat water that allowed some good speed when the breeze was on but suffered from the same shifty wind and rubbish in the water. Wind oscillations on mark roundings were particularly tricky and could lead to losing quite a few places, which was the case for Alex in Race five. In Race six he made a good start having managed to get through the crowd at the pin end and tacked early to work through the middle of the course. He was taking advantage of a strong left hand-side pressure following the track on the race leader, when a plastic bag got hooked onto his foil forcing him lose control and fall.
"Today's shifty offshore wind with flat water is my favourite conditions," said Landwehr. "I'm more used to flat water so I feel I can keep up with the fleet speed-wise. These kinds of days the races are a lot more complicated than the steady sea breeze."
The wind forecast is strong with an offshore Mistral on the horizon. The first warning signal is scheduled for Silver and Bronze fleets at 11H00 CET, Gold fleet racing is planned for 13H00 CET, which will be transmitted Live on IKA's Facebook page and YouTube Cannel.
You can follow the event via the event website: www.formulakite.org
Daily results will be uploaded to the following links:
Australian Sailing Squad (ASS), Australian Sailing Futures (ASF) and other Australian (AUS) entries in the 2022 Formula Kite European Championships:
Female Gold fleet
10th - Breiana Whitehead (ASS) - 7, 2, (11), 6, 5 (20 points)
Female Silver fleet
38th - Jane Taylor (AUS) - 18, (21), 21, 16, 17 (72 points)
Male - Silver fleet
30th - Scott Whitehead (ASS) - 11, 11, 7, (13), 10, 7 (46 points)
41st - Hector Paturau (ASF) - 13, 12, 14, 10, 16, (24) (65 points)
46th - Zac Pullen (AUS) - 15, 14, 10, 18, (24), 14 (70 points)
49th - Alex Landwehr (ASF) - 15, (24), 15, 14, 14, 14 (72 points)