Windy Hyeres

Shake up in the standings as the strong wind experts come to the fore

If the conditions on Tuesday were perfect for some, the “breeze lovers” had their fair share on Wednesday with sea breeze and waves. The South-Easterly wind increased all day to reach 20 knots in its peak. Choppy at the start, the sea evolved quickly to nice rolling waves.

The “heavy weather” sailors made the most of these physical conditions, sometimes winning all the races programmed today.

In the Tornado, Mitch Booth and Herbert Dercksen won each one of the 3 races by an impressive margin. They comfort their lead by 15 points over the Americans Lovell/Ogeltree. The Sydney Gold Medallists, Hagara/Steinacher are climbing to third position.

Mateusz Kusznierewicz was also at ease with the tough conditions, scoring 2 bullets. He is closing the gap on Emilios Papathanasiou, 7 points ahead on 1st place. Rafael Trujillo and Sebastien Godefroid, strong wind masters, both scored a 2nd and a 3rd to place respectively 4th and 7th.

New-Zealanders and Australians have proved today their experience in this type of weather. In the Mistral, Tom Ashlett leads the scoreboard after 3 second places and a win in the last race. Sharron Ferris, used to sail in extreme conditions, scored a 1st and a 2nd in the Yngling class. The 30 year old “Kiwi” has won three speed World records on Maiden with Tracey Edwards: ”My most thrilling experience was helming Maiden into Newport with 40,6 knots!” The other race in the 3 women keelboat was won by Australian team of Nicky Bethwaite. The British team, helmed by Shirley Robertson continues on its high performance. They are increasing their lead to 21 points after scoring a 2nd and a 3rd.

Despite a slow start in the regatta, Sydney Gold medallists, Jenny Armstrong and Belinda Stowell won the 3 races in the 470 women fleet. They slip just into first place, 1 point ahead of British team of Bassadone/Hopson. In the Laser, both Michael Blackburn (AUS) and Robert Scheidt (BRA) won two races. The double Olympic medallist is one of the best performer with a 4th as his worse result since the start of the regatta. He acceded to the top of the rankings with a 9 points margin on the Australian. Yesterday’s leader, Hamish Pepper went down to 7th after scoring top 20’s results.

In the Gold group of the 470 Men’s division, only 6 boats took the start of the second race. The majority of the fleet (31 boats) went back to shore at the end of the first race, thinking that the day was over! The 31 boats are protesting the Race Committee overnight. As a result, the overall standings have drastically changed. Jumping from 7th position, the new regatta leaders are the British Nick Rogers and Joe Glandfield.

It was a long day for the 49ers who completed 4 races. The Sibello brothers are keeping the lead of the fleet with conservative results. They are threatened by the Americans Wadlow/Spaulding who have climbed within 3 points of leaders after 2 victories and a second. The Brazilians Fonseca/Duarte are showing their regularity in the regatta with 9 results in the top 7. They are in 3rd position (4; 5; 6).

In the 2.4R, a battle has started between Thierry Schmitter (NED) and Damien Seguin (FRA) now on equal points. Allan Smith (GBR) is still in 3rd place, 4 points ahead of Olympic selection rival Helena Lucas.

Trine Abrahamsen (DEN), Mexican Tania Elias Calles and 2003 World Champion, Sarah Blank (AUS) won a race each in the Europe Gold fleet. Siren Sundby remains unchallenged 30 points ahead of main rival Sari Multala, penalized by a Black flag at the start of the second race.

More photos following pages...

Results (courtesy RYA):

Yngling

1, Shirley Robertson/Sarah Ayton/Sarah Webb, GBR (1,3,4,8,(11),1,1,2,3) 23 pts

2, Kristin Wagner/Anna Hoell/Veronika Lochbrunner, GER ((19),1,12,3,8,4,2,3,11) 44 pts

3, Sally Barkow/Carrie Howe/Debbie Capozzi, USA (13,2,(21),5,1,2,6,6,16) 51 pts

Other GBR

24, Dominica Lindsey/Annie Lush/Penny Mountford (16,21,17,25,5,(27),20,24,21) 149 pts

470 Women

1, Jenny Armstrong/Belinda Stowell, AUS ((23),3,19,11,9,1,1,1) 45 pts

2, Christina Bassadone/Katherine Hopson, GBR ((30),2,4,8,13,4,10,5) 46 pts

3, Ingrid Pettitjean/Nadege Douroux, FRA (4,8,9,2,(10),5,4,16) 48 pts

470 Men – Gold fleet

1, Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield, GBR (4,2,10,6,9,(14),7,1,4) 43 pts

2, Benjamin Bonnaud/Romain Bonnaud, FRA (2,1,15,1,5,1,10,11,(DNS)) 46 pts

3, Marinho Alvaro/Miguel Nunes, POR (7,3,9,14,4,2,8,5,(DNS)) 52 pts

Other GBR

5, Nic Asher/Elliot Willis ((13),6,13,2,5,13,5,10,6) 60 pts

10, Graham Vials/Bevis Field (4,(BFD),18,8,7,9,22,4,5) 77 pts

Europe – Gold fleet

1, Siren Sundby, NOR (1,1,(21),1,1,3,2,8) 17 pts

2, Sari Multala, FIN (5,12,2,3,10,4,(BFD),11) 47 pts

3, Sarah Macky, NZL ((24),4,1,1,1,23,6,19) 55 pts

GBR

11, Laura Baldwin (10,16,11,5,7,20,(23),3) 72 pts

Laser – Gold fleet

1, Robert Scheidt, BRA (1,(4),3,2,1,1,3,2) 13 pts

2, Michael Blackburn, AUS (6,4,(18),3,5,2,1,1) 22 pts

3, Andreas Geritzer, AUT (3,1,3,2,5,3,6,(8)) 23 pts

GBR

5, Paul Goodison (1,7,2,1,2,16,(19),7) 36 pts

15, Mark Howard ((25),3,8,2,7,13,15,18) 66 pts

16, Dan Holman (3,11,18,11,4,(33),8,11) 66 pts

18, Ed Wright (9,12,19,2,16,5,(21),9) 72 pts

28, Andrew Commander (3,13,19,3,1,27,35,31) 97 pts

Finn

1, Emilios Papathanasiou, GRE (4,2,1,(13),2,4,6) 19 pts

2, Mateusz Kuszneirewicz, POL (2,15,(37),6,1,1,1) 26 pts

3, Marin Misura, CRO ((22),8,2,10,8,5,8) 41 pts

GBR

6, Andrew Simpson ((37),1,7,7,32,6,5) 58 pts

2.4mR

1, Thierry Schmitter, NED (1,(OCS),1,1,4,2) 9 pts

2, Damien Seguin, FRA (2,(3),3,2,1,1) 9 pts

3, Allan Smith, GBR (3,(7),2,6,3,3) 17 pts

Other GBR

4, Helena Lucas (4,2,4,7,(8),4) 21 pts

6, Andrew Millband (5,6,9,8,2,(12)) 30 pts

9, Megan Pascoe (8,8,8,9,7,(DNF)) 40 pts

10, Michael Cogswell (11,1,(12),11,12,8) 43 pts

14, Brian Harding (9,12,15,14,(16),13) 62 pts

15, Val Millward (15,(OCS),DNF,13,10,10) 68 pts

17, Simon Wright (12,13,17,18,(19),14) 73 pts

18, Andrew Previte ((20),16,18,15,17,16) 81 pts

Tornado

1, Mitch Booth/Herbert Dercksen, NED (3,(6),1,4,3,2,1,1) 23 pts

2, John Lovell/Charlie Ogletree, USA (1,8,7,1,1,(11),3,8,3) 32 pts

3, Roman Hagara/Hans Peter Steinacher, AUT (4,(9),5,2,7,5,6,6,5) 40 pts

No GBR boats competing

49er

1, Piero Sibello/Gianfranco Sibello, ITA (1,13,2,(18),1,12,1,7,2,4,5) 48 pts

2, Tim Wadlow/Pete Spaulding, USA (11,4,9,14,2,5,2,(16),1,2,1) 51 pts

3, Andre Fonseca/Rodrigo Duarte, BRA (7,7,3,(12),7,10,5,4,4,5,6) 58 pts

No GBR boats competing

Mistral Men

1, Tom Ashlett, NZL (2,(5),3,3,1,2,2,2,1) 16 pts

2, Fabrice Hassen, FRA (1,3,5,1,(19),1,1,3,3) 18 pts

3, Joao Rodrigues, POR (3,4,1,2,6,3,(OCS),1,2) 22 pts

No GBR boats competing

Mistral Women

1, Olga Maslivets, UKR ((6),1,5,2,2,2) 12 pts

2, Romy Kinzl, GER (5,(6),6,1,1,3) 16 pts

3, Pauline Perrin, FRA (1,(11),3,4,5,6) 19 pts

No GBR boats competing