49erFX: Brazil win, but Dutch survive pressure to win ticket to Tokyo
Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze won the Open European Championships, the Olympic Champions from Brazil in a different class this week in Weymouth. The greater interest for the Medal Race was which of the chasing pack would succeed in taking the silver and bronze. There were six teams in contention for the minor medals, but […]
49erFX: Scandinavians deliver while the leaders falter
On the penultimate day of gold fleet racing, after a brief postponement the 49erFX gold were up first in the harbour course, to battle in the light winds for positioning going into the medal race. It was a day for the Scandinavians to shine, with the Danes having led from the left to round in […]
Kiwis are mortal, but still hard to beat
The legendary New Zealanders, Pete Burling and Blair Tuke, displayed some chink of mortality in the last race of the day by finishing 19th. However, their other scores of 3,6 put them in a strong position going into the final day of 49er European Championship on Sunday. The reigning Olympic Champions hold a 17-point advantage […]
49erFX: Kiwis make a move on the podium
The Brazilians have shown remarkable consistency throughout the week, although even Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze put a slight blot on their pristine copybook with a 12th in the middle of three races on Friday. The other scores were a 5th and a 7th, however, which means the reigning Olympic Champions continue to hold a […]
49er Men: Heil and Ploessel master a random day in the Bay
The conditions for the 49er gold fleet were full power all day, 10 to 14 knots of easterly breeze out in Weymouth Bay. However, there were significant lines of gust and lull across the lumpy course, with a few wind shifts thrown in for good measure. Peter Burling and Blair Tuke managed to negotiate the […]
Shaking up the Leaderboard
While racing earlier in the day may have seemed relatively straightforward for the 49erFX, the same race course proved a very different diamond for the men to crack. Combining the three qualifying fleets into one gold fleet, meant a very close point battle going into the day, and very tight racing on the course itself, […]
49erFX: Race wins for Denmark, Britain & Sweden, but Brazil still leads
The usual suspects were hard to find in the first race of the 49erFX gold fleet. With the wind lighter than expected and the teams struggling to power their skiffs through the choppy swell of Weymouth Bay, some different names came to the fore. Anne-Julie Schütt and Iben Nielsby seized the initiative and read the […]
49erFX: Brazil rules Qualifying
Lighter winds in Portland Harbour led to closer racing in the 49erFX fleet for day 3 of the Europeans. The top three boats all had a below-average race out of the three they contested today. The problem for the rest of the fleet is that for the Brazilians, Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze, their ‘below-average’ […]
49er Men: Softer is Harder
The breeze softened a little today, but that just meant the standard of the racing got harder on day 3 of the Europeans in Weymouth. Unlike the previous two days of high-wave action, there was little risk of pitchpoling in the 10 to 12 knot breezes out in Weymouth Bay. But that just put a […]
Nacra 17: Gimson and Burnet in an Italian sandwich
Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti (ITA) continued their relentless march at the top of the leaderboard, notching up two more first places in their qualifying group, only falling foul in the last race of the afternoon. “We were fast upwind and going well downwind in the waves,” said Banti. “We just didn’t start quite so […]