The 2015 49er and 49erFX European Championships in Porto are continuing on with the Magic Marine Starting Competition and Seiko King and Queen of the Downwind, which began running in 2013. This year, the 25 boats from each of the gold fleets will be tracked with a chance to be crowned as they get off the water!
The Magic Marine Starting Competition uses the SAP Analytics to assess quality of each boats start based on a number of important metrics. The net result shows who performed best during the pre-start sequence and as the fleet gets off the start line in relation to their final standing to highlight the importance of a good start.
Using the GPS systems on-board, the boats are judged in 6 key areas,
• Distance from the line at the gun – all boats that are within 3m of the start line are awarded 1 point.
• Win the pin – the first 3 boats to successfully manage to win the pin gains 1 point
• Win the committee boat – the first 3 boats to successfully manage to win the boat end, gains 1 point.
• Port Tack Option – perform a successful port tack option on the fleet.
• Having a lane at 1 minute – those who have successfully found a clear lane are awarded 1 point.
• Windward mark roundings – The 1st 5 boats to round the top mark are awarded 1 point.
The points are totted up and the winner earns the right to wear the green bib during the next day’s racing, as well as receiving a gift voucher from sponsors, Magic Marine.
After race postponement yesterday for the 49erFX finals, action kicked off mid-afternoon with the beginning of both gold fleet races.
Today’s winners in the 49erFX fleet was a tie between Lutz/Beucke (GER 161) and Bekkering/Duetz (NED 4) who just managed to squeak out the Finns Ruskola/Cedercreutz (FIN 101) by a 1 point margin. Similarly on the men’s side of things, Visconti/Tongi ( ITA 187) came out on top with a three way tie for second between Bianchi/Lowbeer (BRA 300), Filipowicz/Piasecki (POL 107) and Januszewski/Nowak (POL 52). This secured the green jersey for both the Lutz and Visconti for the coming day of action.
A full recap of scoring for the 49erFX and 49er can be found respectively here:
The Seiko Kings & Queens of Downwind award is based purely on the time spent sailing downwind. The individual downwind legs in both races are summated to work out who in theory sailed best downwind today. It is no surprise that in both fleets, the least amount of time spent on the downwind was by boats at the front of the pack.
For the 49erFX, the Italian pairing of Conti/Clapcich (ITA 3) held a 24 second advantage over the trailing team of Lutz/Beucke (GER 161). The italians solidified their strong finish with a bullet in their final race. As for the 49er fleet, Lange/Lange (ARG 133) came out on top by 19 seconds over the current race leaders Burling/Tuke (NZL 1).
Both the Italians and Argentineans will share the right to wear the purple bibs tomorrow. Complete Seiko Downwind results are found below:
Tomorrow the 49erFX finals come to a close with the medal races, with action in the 49er fleet entering it’s second day. Tune in for live action at 49er.org!
