Some great breeze for foiling in the catamarans and full-on planing in the skiffs, with some surprise leaders in the 49er and 49erFX and a not-so-surprising new leader in the Nacra 17 fleet…
49erFX: Swedes shocked by their slender lead
It’s not like it’s anything new for Vilma Bobeck to be leading a 49erFX World Championship. After all, the Swedish helm absolutely dominated the 2023 Worlds in The Hague with former crew Rebecca Netzler to claim the title before going on to win the Olympic silver medal at Paris 2024. But to only recently team up with new sheet hand Ebba Berntsson and now to be leading the World Championship at the halfway stage after little more than three weeks in the boat together – that’s way beyond expectation.
Not only that, but after scoring sixth in their first race, they won their final two heats of qualifying. “We came here expecting absolutely nothing,” said Bobeck. “We certainly did not expect this to perform this, well, at this stage of the event. But now – Gold Fleet – is when the real regatta starts and we’re just happy to make it in first place into Gold Fleet. We just want to keep on learning and keep on enjoying sailing together.”
Tied on points with the Swedes but second on tiebreak are Canadian sisters Georgia and Antonia Lewin-LaFrance. “It was beautiful,” said Antonia of today’s conditions, with breeze up to 14 knots. “We had really, really nice conditions, like planing, full send, nice waves, it was sick. I think so far, knock on wood, we’ve managed to be quite consistent, despite really challenging sailing conditions. In the last few days, it’s been not just straightforward and simple, not one side always paying, it’s been quite back and forth, so I’m happy with how we’ve gone.”
Like the leading Swedes, another new pairing who are exceeding their expectations are the Spanish in third overall, just a point off the lead. Paola Barcelo has been to two Olympics and won a World Championship as a crew. But now, steering at the back of the boat and with new partner Maria Cantero, the Spanish are enjoying a similar Swedish sensation of not quite believing they are able to perform at the top level so soon. Of course it helps that standing in their corner outside the ring is coach Xabi Fernandez, a 49er World Champion and Olympic gold medallist as well as a veteran of many campaigns and in the America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race.
Special mention should go to Pia Dahl Andersen and Nora Edland who raced in the first two races of the session despite Edland still suffering from severe illness. After scoring a 3rd and 8th they retired from the final race of the afternoon but the Norwegians still hold 8th place overall, a phenomenal performance under extraordinary circumstances.
49er: Aussies hijack the lead ahead of the big guns
Jack Ferguson and Jack Hildebrand from Australia have climbed from third to first overall at the end of 49er qualifying. Only the top 25 of 84 entries move into Gold Fleet while the rest divide into silver and bronze fleet.
Up until the ninth and last race of the qualifying, the young Aussies had scored all their results in the top six. Even their discard from the last race, a 12th, is no disgrace. As sailors so often do, when they’re asked the secret to their success, it all sounds oh-so-simple. “We had a strong start to the day, which is great,” said Ferguson, “and I’m still pretty confident going into the final series. We’re pretty happy with how we’ve sailed this qualifying series, all our results are keepers. Super challenging racing, the breeze has been all over the place. We’ve been finding the knocks and tacking on them and keeping the boat going fast.”
Five points back are two teams on equal points are the Polish team of Mikolaj Staniul and Jakub Sztorch along with three-time World Champions from the Netherlands, Bart Lambriex van Aanholt and Floris van de Werken. And just a point further back in fourth are the Olympic Champions from Spain, Diego Botin and Florian Trittel.
Last team to squeak into the top 25 are the Norwegian siblings Mathias and Markus Berthet with two notable teams from downunder just missing the cut. Australia’s Otto Henry and Shaun Connor fell short by two points and a point further back in 27th are last year’s International Moth World Champion Mattias Coutts along with Oscar Gunn from New Zealand.
Nacra 17: Italians pushed hard by flying Dutch duo
After a slow start to their regatta, home favourites Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei are winding their Nacra 17 up to top speed on home waters. The Italians won both races on the first day of the 20-boat Gold Fleet competition, displacing previous leaders from Great Britain, John Gimson and Anna Burnet, who are now four points off the lead in second.
In both races the Italians were pushed hard all the way by the up and coming Dutch team, Willemijn Offerman and Scipio Houtman, who have risen from ninth to fourth overall and just two points behind the Turkish duo in third, Sinem Kurtbay and Alican Kaynar. Offerman was buzzing after their successful day on the bay of Cagliari in full-foiling conditions. “It was super nice to have such a speedy race and just push it to the limits and smash it out there,” she beamed.
Houtman was excited to see how all their hard work in training was paying off so handsomely. “I think maybe we weren’t expecting to be so competitive against them, but yeah, it clearly shows that we’ve been putting in some hours in the boat and we’re getting faster and faster on the race course.”
written by event reporter Andy Rice
