News

20

January 2020

Stormy day at Sail Melbourne Regatta, Jean-Baptiste Bernaz continues leading

Melbourne, Australia (January 19, 2020) – Despite a huge storm front battering Port Phillip in the early afternoon, most classes were able to complete a full slate of racing on day three of the 2020 Sail Melbourne International Regatta today.

The thick squall carried a sheet of small hailstones, and hit the bay just as most of the racing was wrapping up with the Laser, Laser Radial and Laser 4.7s the only fleets restricted to one race. Two days remain in most of the fleets with only the Tasar fleet deciding the winners today.

Laser Fleets
In the Olympic classes, the Laser fleets only got one race in with the thunderstorm approaching and racing abandoned as a consequence.

It was challenging day for the Laser Standard fleet with six recalls delaying the start of racing. After one race today, three-time Olympian Jean Baptist Bernaz continues to lead with Australian Sailing Team’s Matt Wearn (WA) jumping from fifth to second after finishing today’s race in fifth.

“I think we had about six general recalls so there was a lot of people getting black flagged. So it took us a while to get going, but we finally had a nice race in what felt like a sea breeze,” Wearn said about the events of the day.

“I’m not sure why it happened (so many recalls), people are just too eager I think. But there has still been good racing, I rounded in the top five and just held that position the whole way around. I picked up a place here and there and lost a place here and there so finished fifth and I’ll take that,” Wearn added.

Rio Olympic champion Tom Burton was one of the sailors affected by the series of black flags and dropped from second into seventh place.

“It was a long day and I think we had six or seven general recalls. I think I might have gotten black flagged in the very last one but I did the race anyway so it was good fitness. It was 20 knots and it just built and built and built. I’m knackered to be honest,” Tom Burton said.

Going into the last two days of racing, New Zealand’s Thomas Saunders is ranked third overall after finishing tenth in the race today.

“Today was a longer day than it should have been. The standard boats weren’t very good on the start line, we had maybe six general recalls. So we got quite behind in the time there and we only got one in before the storm started to set in which was a bit frustrating,” Saunders said.

“I didn’t have a great first race but I managed to come back to a half decent result so pretty happy. Yesterday for me was pretty good, day one started off with a black flag, so not the way you want to start a regatta but I managed to bounced back yesterday and continued on today. So hopefully a few more days and see where we end up,” Saunders said about his regatta so far.

Sitting in fourth place overall in the Laser is Guatemala’s Juan Maegli. “Today was a great day, we only did one race with this storm coming through but the race that we did was pretty good. I had a good race, finished third, so yeah happy with the day.
It has been windy the whole three days so we are a bit tired, but it has been great sailing,” Maegli said after the race.

Maegli is already selected for Tokyo 2020 after securing his country a quota spot at the 2019 Pan American Games and is enjoying is time in Australia. “This my third time in Australia, I enjoy it a lot over here. I was in Melbourne in 2010, so a long time ago.”

Laser Radial
In the women’s Laser Radial, Ireland’s Olympic silver medalist Annalise Murphy won the one and only race today and moved up into fifth place overall and third ranked female.

Rio Olympic champion Marit Bouwmeester continues to lead the female rankings after an eighth place today with Italy’s Rio Olympian Silvia Zennaro following in second after posting a second.

“It was a nice day, but it took a bit long to get started. I think it took them an hour and 15 minutes to get the guys on the way, and then even the 4.7s had a general recall so it was a long day on the water for only one race and that was a shame. But it was good and it’s nice to be here and get some racing in,” Bouwmeester said.

Western Australian youth sailor Michael Compton is still leading the Radial fleet overall and posted a third today. “We have had quite a few windy days which suits me because I am from WA and we always get the windy sea breeze. I thought Nationals and Youth Nationals were my two biggest events so coming to this one there isn’t really any pressure.

“It is really about getting the training in before our men’s worlds, whereas for these guys (the women) it’s world ranking points so there’s quite a lot of pressure for them so I’ve got a bit of an advantage there,” Compton said about racing the world’s best female laser radial sailors.

Finn
Two races were completed in the Olympic Finn class with Australian Sailing Squad’s Jake Lilley (QLD) continuing to build his lead after two race wins. Switzerland’s Nils Theuninck is sitting in second with Tom Ramshaw from Canada following in third.

RS:X F/M
The Olympic windsurfing class RS:X got all of their three races in with Britain’s Tom Squires building his lead ahead of Israel’s Yoav Omer and Tom Reuveny. Reuveny won the first race of the day, with Squires winning the last two races.

“It was another great day of breeze, it picked up this afternoon and we had three races in challenging weather conditions in terms of the shifts and the gusts but I had a really great time,” Squires said about the conditions.

“It has been a challenging event. The course area is quite close to the beach so we have been tucking up the inside of the shore sometimes, and the next race will be out to sea and I seem to be pulling it together slowly,” Squires added.

While Squires is already selected for Tokyo, Israel and other countries will still decide their selection following the RS:X World Championships in Sorrento at the end of February with racing heating up at Sail Melbourne, which is a welcome lead-in event for the world champs.

“It’s a warm-up regatta for our World Championships in Sorrento and Sail Melbourne is actually really relevant – it’s offshore here and it’s offshore in Sorrento so I am looking forward to getting prepared for the Worlds, the last one – ever,” Squires said. The RS:X will be replaced by the iQFoil as the windsurfer equipment for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

But until then, all eyes are set on Tokyo with under 200 days to go until the start of the Olympic Games.

“I have already qualified for Tokyo. It has been a long process and I had a bit of a break after the Worlds last year so I am building up now for the 2020 World Championships. It’s going to be full power until Tokyo and I am really excited to get training for the Olympic Games which is a bit surreal right now,” Squires added.

Men and women are racing together in one fleet at Sail Melbourne and Israel’s Noy Drihan, who is also still vying for Olympic selection, continues to lead after a 9 (drop) – 1 – 3 series on Sunday. Olympic champion Charline Picon continues in second place after a fourth, first and second place with Poland’s Maja Dziarnowska moving up into third after winning the last race of the day.

Kite-Foiling
With kite-foiling added to the Olympic program for Paris 2024, the 2020 Australian Kite-foiling championships have attracted a lot of interest with17-year old Scott Whitehead from Townsville holding his lead after another three races and despite an OCS in the first one.

His sister and defending national champion Breiana Whitehead continues to lead the women’s category and is ranked fifth overall in the mixed fleet after posting a 2, 3, 6 series.

Kite-foiling is continuing to grow around the country and it is the first kite-foiling championship for Western Australian Alexander Landwehr who is ranked eighth overall after two days of racing.

“Yesterday was a really good day, and the first race today went as well as it could have. I did everything I wanted to do on the course, hit the right side both times which was good and I finished sixth. The next couple of days will be a very interesting regatta – that’s for sure,” Landwehr said.

Another six races are scheduled for the last two days of the regatta, which will wrap up on Tuesday, January 21.

About the Sail Melbourne International Regatta
Sail Melbourne International continues the 2020 Melbourne Summer of Sailing event series and with just under 200 days until the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The regatta has attracted an elite field from 25 countries and from all around Australia with close to 300 entries racing.

The event includes the Laser Oceania Championships, the inaugural 2020 Australian Kite Foiling Championships, as well as the 2020 Australian Para-Sailing Championships and Australian Championships in the International 505 Class.

The Laser Standard and Laser Radial events has attracted the largest number of entries to test the Port Phillip waters ahead of their Class World Championships for the Laser Standard (February 9-16) and Laser Radial (February 21-28).

Other events include the inaugural Australian Kite Foiling Championships – the class that will premiere at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Finns, the International 505 class. Tasar, Liberty and Laser 4.7 classes complete the program as well as the para sailing classes of 2.4mR and Hansa 303.

 

Source: Australian Sailing Media

Rachele Vitello

SSL Press Officer since 2015