49er Spinnaker Tender - Looking for a New Kite

The 49er is looking to update our Spinnaker.  It's been over 16 years with the current design, and with teams pushing harder and faster than ever before it is time to look at updating the sail.

We are calling all sail designers and sail makers to take a shot at our new design.  Whether you're at the biggest loft, have the best computers, amazing experience, or are a crafsman, we're looking for an inspired new design.  The process has been set up so that the design and produciton are separated so that we can get the best of both going forward.  Please review the guidelines and register your intent to submit.  Trial sails are to be delivered to the 2013 World Championship, Sept 21, 2013, in Marseilles, France.  The new design will be implemented follwing the 2016 Olympic games.  Good luck, may the best sail win!

Top 49er and 49erFX Teams Tested in the Palma Theatre

The theatre style finish to the World Cup of Sailing in Palma produced spectacular racing.  There was a 10 knot breeze and modest chop to start the day that built to 18 knots by the last races of the 49er fleet.  The schedule called for 4 theatre races for the top 8 49erFX teams followed by the same for the 49er fleet.

The scoreboard looked a little different from how sailing fans might be used to seeing it as ISAF is testing scoring options and formats during the 2013 race season.  Here is a look at the scoreboards for both the 49erFX and 49er Fleets.  For those keeping track at home, the points these teams would have been on are calculated for both the classic scoring system the 49er class has used for the past 8 or so years as well as a new scoring option called ‘elimination scoring’ where only the results of those boats still remaining in the competition are used to recalculate all of the race scores through the week.

One of the features of the Theatre Style racing is that it is quite easy to follow and film the entire race course from the sidelines.  Each race of the day is available in full length on youtube for those who wish to watch the day unfold as the live audience did.  For those looking for a summary of what happened, please jump down this article to the bottom.

Race 1 – 49erFX

Race 2 – 49erFX

Race 3 – 49erFX

Race 4 – 49erFX

Race 1 – 49er

Race 2 – 49er

Race 3 – 49er

Race 4 – 49er

49erFX Summary

Neither of the 49er fleet and the 49erFX fleet was particularly close on points going into the final day.  There were some places that could change, but there was a very limited amount of movement that was mathematically possible.  The absolute maximum is a 28 point movement as if a team wins every race and another team is last in every race, there would be a 28 point gap between them.  Another 4 points are possible if a team does not finish the races or is disqualified for some reason.

The limited passing opportunities did not have a big impact on how hard the teams appeared to be racing, though in some cases it may have effected their preparation the night before.  With Theatre Racing new to the 49er class, most teams gave 100% effort in the hopes of learning about the new style of racing.

In the 49erFX fleet, a few things that were apparent through the week became even more obvious.  The first is that the Danish team of Ida Nielseb and Marie Olsen were unstoppable.  They dominated the week and then also proceeded to dominate the theatre style final.  They won 3 of the races and came 2^nd in the final race.  They also came to those finishes in a variety of ways, sometimes leading the whole way, other times making come back.  The one consistent feature what their calm approach to tactical situations, their fantastic boat handling, and their solid boat speed.

Boat handling and fitness are highly interlinked in a 49er.  The teams who are able to keep the boat stable through maneuvers and in a straight line also expend far less energy chasing the boat and recovering from small or large upsets.  More than any other observation from the theatre racing, this one proved itself out over the 4 race series.  Both the Danish winners and Kiwi silver medalists, Alex Maloney and Molly Meech, were a step ahead of the other teams with regard to their boathandling skills.  In the later races, as other teams had to recover from energy sapping bobbles, incidents, and capsizes, these two teams got stronger and were able to move into the top 2 positions consistently.

Close on their heels were another Danish team of Jena Hansen and Katja Iversen.  They also had very solid boathandling, but fought a persistent issue with their spinnaker retrieval system through the final couple of races which cost them somewhat on their path toward the Bronze medals.

Overall, the 49erFX fleet did very well in racing this new format and provided some thrilling moments throughout the day.

49er Summary

As the 49er fleet waited on shore for the 49erFX final to be completed, the wind built to a picture perfect 15 knots and modest chop.  There was a chilly sting in the air as well - Palma was unusually cold on this final day.  The snow capped mountains in the background were testament to the somewhat unusual temperatures.  Fortunately for the 49er teams having 4 races with 3 laps each and only a 10 minute target time meant that the teams stayed so active they would have hardly noticed.

The racing was a spirited affair, with any of the teams participating able to claim a race victory.  In the end, however, no team came close to closing the 13 point lead Erik Heil and Thomas Plossel were able to build from their fantastic gold fleet performance that featured 4 race wins from 6 races.  They sailed really well in the Theatre Style finals and claimed the mathematical victory with 2 races to spare.  They completed all 4 races, and raced well before treating the media to a double treat after the final race

The battle for the silver medal was a close one, with Team GBR’s Dave Evans and Ed Pows only marginally ahead of 2012 Olympic Bronze medalist Allan Norreggaard and new crew Alders Thomspen.  By the third race of the day the two teams were tied on points.  The brits had lousy luck all day and while getting into good positions through the day were never able close out a top finish.  Allan was 3 points up going into the final race and after a brief engagement with the brits (which was missed due to a lack of camera battery capacity) in the final race was able to secure the silver.

For those who have watched the 49er races above, one aspect of the racing that was not quite ‘right’ was how the downwinds played out.  Fans will notice a large number of boats overstanding the leeward marks forcing some very difficult boathandling and often recoveries to re-round.  The geography of the race course was not quite correct, and as the left shifting puffs rolled in, teams were able to sail so low that they never encountered the lane boundary.  That allowed teams rounding behind the ability to sail a low course and block the leading team from gybing where they normally would.  While this did create passing opportunities in the races, 49er race officials will strive in the future to ensure the lane boundary is engaged on straight sets by either shifting the boundary itself or moving the top mark closer to the left hand boundary.  That should provide some options for leading boats to ‘save’ themselves from being passed.

From a purely racing perspective, the 49ers delivered wonderfully in races 2, 3, and 4.  There were many passes, spectacular downwinds, and thundering capsizes.  Even though the scores were not that close, other than with the battle for 2^nd place, the races were entertaining in themselves.

It is easy to imagine how a professional camera crew will be able to capture the action and convey a fantastic story to sailing fans in the near future.  That chance is coming up soon, as the 49er class European championships will have the final 3 days live broadcast on Danish TV and live-steamed to the internet.  The dates for those broadcasts are July 5-7, 2013, and all the action and details will be available at 49er.org.  Many thanks in advance go to our corporate sponsors, Seiko and SAP for making the broadcast possible.

Gold Fleets Battle for Inclusion in the Theatre Final

Another classic Palma day greeted the 49er sailors to finish out the gold fleet.  There was a slight delay as the sea breeze built before the fleets got their full schedule of racing in wind that built to 14 knots and then slowly decreased through the rest of the day.

The 49erFX fleet point spread closed up a little bit as the Kiwi’s, Alex Maloney and Molly Meech, scored a 1, 2, 2 today.  That shrunk the lead of Nielson and Olson of Denmark to only 8 points. The top eight boats will complete in ‘the theatre’ tomorrow with 4 theatre style races scheduled.

The 49er fleet started the day how they finished yesterday, with utter domination by Sailing Team Germany’s Erik Heil and Thomas Plossel.  After winning all three races yesterday, they won the first race today by a fair margin.  They did finally made their first mistake in the 5^th race however, being over the line early during a black flag start causing their disqualification.  That set up a critical final race for the Germans.  

Despite the German domination, two teams are still in striking distance.  Evans/Pows of GBR and Norregard/Thomsen of DEN are in second and third respectively.  Each of these teams carried decent scores as their drop races so if the Germans were to falter they could pounce on the opportunity and bring them much closer for the final day. 

Holding true to form in the Gold fleet, Heil/Plossel scored a 5^th in the final race to take a 13 point lead into the final. while their rivals sailed some of their poorest races of the regatta.  It will be a difficult challenge to claw back so many points in the theatre.

In the middle of the pack are 4 experienced teams who are all very close on points.  Morrisson/Rhodes and Warrer/Lang are both Olympians and the other two teams both featured heavily in the 2012 European theatre Style finals.  The Paz brothers of Spain were leading the finals before being knocked off their boat by the Irish team of Seaton/McGovern at a leeward mark.  The French team of Frie/Rocherieux were clearly comfortable in the theatre, winning the event from all the way back in 6^th place.

Jonathan Bay of Denmark was the final helmsman to qualify for the Theatre Style final.  “This is so important for us.  For a while now, we’ve been happy with how we’ve been sailing and happy with our regattas, but we haven’t gotten the results.  Now, finally, we see it on the scoreboard for the first time,” he said.  Bay and Thorsnell beat out the Alonso brothers of Spain by just a single point.

The Alonso brothers have been unlucky twice in a row now with the new format system.  They lead qualifying in Garda only for it to be discarded by the format there.  Here in Palma, they again did well in qualifying coming in 5^th to Bay/Thorsnells 22^nd and miss out again.

and in the 49erFX fleet seven countries will be represented. 

The 49er fleet started the day how they finished yesterday, with utter domination by Sailing Team Germany’s Erik Heil and Thomas Plossel.  After winning all three races yesterday, they won the first race today by a fair margin.  They made their first mistake in the 5^th race however, being over the line early during a black flag start causing their disqualification.  That set up a critical final race for the Germans in the final race of the Gold fleet.  Holding true to form in the Gold fleet, Heil/Plossel scored a 5^th in the final race to take a 13 point lead into the final. 

Despite the German domination, two teams are still in striking distance.  Evans/Pows of GBR and Norregard/Thomsen of DEN are in second and third respectively.  Each of these teams carried decent scores as their drop races so if the Germans were to falter they could pounce on the opportunity and bring them much closer for the final day.  Unfortunately for them, they were both beaten by the Germans and sailed some of their poorest races of the regatta.  It will be a difficult challenge to claw back so many points in the theatre.

In the middle of the pack are 4 experienced teams who are all very close on points.  Morrisson/Rhodes and Warrer/Lang are both Olympians and the other two teams both featured heavily in the 2012 European theatre Style finals.  The Paz brothers of Spain were leading the finals before being knocked off their boat by the Irish team of Seaton/McGovern at a leeward mark.  The French team of Frie/Rocherieux were clearly comfortable in the theatre, winning the event from all the way back in 6^th place.

Jonathan Bay of Denmark was the final helmsman to qualify for the Theatre Style final.  “This is so important for us.  For a while now, we’ve been happy with how we’ve been sailing and happy with our regattas, but we haven’t gotten the results.  Now, finally, we see it on the scoreboard for the first time,” he said.  Bay and Thorsnell beat out the Alonso brothers of Spain by just a single point.

The Alonso brothers have been unlucky twice in a row now with the new format system.  They lead qualifying in Garda only for it to be discarded by the format there.  Here in Palma, they again did well in qualifying coming in 5^th to Bay/Thorsnells 22^nd and miss out again.

Big Gold Fleets and Great Conditions in Palma

Today was the first day of gold fleet racing at the World Cup of sailing in Palma.  The 49erFX fleet was sent afloat first and had to work through some unsteadiness as the wind moved left 120 degrees in the first hour.  Once things stabilized, the breeze built and the fleet got in 3 races in fantastic conditions.

The trial scoring system being used meant that teams started the day with the equivalent of only 1 race scored even though this was day 4 of the regatta.  Overnight leaders, Ida Marie Baa Nielson and Marie Thusgaard Olsen of Denmark, were not put off by the curtailing of their lead and won all three races.  The scoreboard might read cleanly, but they needed to work hard for their wins today and the fleet was very close.  The Marie’s were able to use their downwind speed and solid skiff sailing experience to move through the few people that were able to beat them upwind.

The next group of sailing enjoyed tight racing, interchanging positions though the day.  That group includes boats from Great Britain, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, Brazil, and another from Denmark.  The varied results are what is expected from the close racing in the 49er class and is typical with the shorter 30 minute races.  Each of the group of 6 sit on points between 11-16 and will all be looking to secure a top 8 so they can be included in the Theatre Style racing that concludes the regatta on Saturday.

There are also a number of teams chasing the 8^th and last spot to get into the final.  The three races tomorrow will be extremely important for these teams as they all try to build up experience in 'the theatre' so they are well prepared for the conclusion of the European and World Championships this summer.  The theatre racing is a new concept within the 49er class since the 2012 Europeans.  The races are only 10 minutes long and the course area is constrained so that teams must engage actively with one another more frequently.  The format option has been instrumental in securing a live TV contract for the Europeans this summer in Denmark, July 5-7, and the feed will also be made available as a livestream on the web.

Back to the gold fleet here in Palma, the story for the 49er fleet was similar to that of the 49erFX fleet.  This time it was the German team of Erik Heil and Thomas Plossel who dominated the day.  They credited their great speed and ability to tack on the few small shifts that were on the course.  They now have a 9 point lead but in a 37 boat gold fleet, that still quite slim.  Tomorrows racing should also be incredably close.  Results