Last Race of Qualifying series.
After yesterdays mass finishing in the blue fleet, the protest room was still full even at 12:00 noon. Over 25 boats crossed the line in such close proximity( all in 10 seconds). The race committee boat had a super hard time clarifying the exact finishing order. Naturally some mistakes just happen. All the sailors were pushing to either get a redress or request a scoring recheck . At one stage there was over 20 people in the Jury room all offering their side of the story. It was quite amazing to see what was happening. A partial resolution was reached, with still a couple of scoring requests being held later in the day.
The one very positive thing to start early today was the wind. A total reversal of yesterdays conditions. A direction of around 60 degrees(NE). At around 20 to 22 knots with gust in the 26 knot range. The local wave conditions being very similar to that of Port Philip Bay in Melbourne. Short, sharp and choppy waves at around 4 to 5 foot. Now as the sailing instructions noted, there was 4 days to get in 6 qualifying races. So the race committee decided to run one race to complete the series with a full score.
14:00 saw the first start in the silver fleet. Full planing in huge waves, very spectacular. The day was not with out some incidents 3 boats broke shrouds. Others had big crashing capsizes. In all 14 boats didn't finish and had to limp home. But those who wound their courage level up, really did a fantastic job, in such trying conditions. Again it was the day of the heavy hitters, Sime FANTELA and Igor MARENIC(CRO 83) just tuned themselves into the conditions and pushed the boat faster, higher, deeper and over more ground than anybody else. They led by around 4 hundred metres from their closest rival. Just flying. And with a lesser margin Levine EYAL and Amir YAM(ISR 9) did the same in the their fleet. Levine. Both Yam and I love the windy conditions we can find that the only way to handle the choppy waves is to go faster.
Other notable achievements were Georgios VASILAS and Evangelos MITAKIS(GRE7) who are the easily one of the lightest crews, blasting to a second place finish in the gold fleet. Georgios: We had to loose a lot of weight for the Europeans in Thessaloniki, So we are not very heavy. We went fast today because we have a really good technique, something we have been working on for some time. And It shows due to our score in this 6th race.
A look at the women's part of the fleet, sees 5 women's boats going through to the gold fleet with only a 16 point spread. Greece, Finland, Spain, Australia and Switzerland, have all made it through to battle out to see who will be the best women's team. The results will be below. Stacy OMAY and Chelsea HALL(AUS 352) had a great race today, scoring a 12th place finish. Obviously very happy with their result at the end of the race. They struggled a bit in the earlier rounds, but are coming back very strong. Chelsea is last years 420 World Champion. Sailing with Stacey only a couple of months. Emanuelle ROL and Anne-Sophie THILO(SUI 12) were black flagged(BFD) yesterday and had gear breakage in todays race. So just made it in to the top 41, but were clearly upset with their last two days.
Tomorrow sees the split of the top 41 come into effect. It will be interesting to see how the top teams will handle racing against each other. The forecast is for something resembling today. so stay tuned for more action tomorrow. Oh and check www.470.org for a heap of photos of all the racing.
LINKS
ISAF
Regatta site
PHOTOS
Overall Results
1 CRO 83 (7.0)
2 ISR 9 (7.0)
3 GRE 7 (12.0)
4 POL 50 (14.0
5 RUS 11 (17.0)
6 GER4944 (25.0)
7 GER11 (26.0)
8 ISR 5 (27.0)
9 AUS (28.0)
10 POL52 (28.0)

Women’s Results
34th. GRE 887 (80.0)
37th FIN 142 (85.0)
39th ESP 696 (90.0)
40th AUS 352 (91.0)
41st SUI 12 (96.0)
470 junior Worlds
Thursday, 26 July 2007