Light conditions

A look at the team GBR progress at SPA Olympic classes regatta

On the third day of SPA Olympic Classes Regatta in Medemblik, Holland the overcast weather cleared to produce blue skies and 4-7 knots of breeze.

Ben Ainslie had another great day in the Finn class. Ainslie managed to read the tricky conditions correctly and scored two consecutive first places for the second day running.

In the first race of the day Ainslie rounded the windward mark in eighth place and managed to work his way through the fleet to cross the finish line first in front of Kristian Aderman of Sweden. In the second race a pile up at the pin-end of the start line caused Ainslie to cross behind the fleet. By reading the shifts well upwind Ainslie rounded the first mark in the top five and again worked his way though the fleet to take his fourth consecutive race win.

Ainslie commented, “I am really pleased with how I am sailing. I have good boat speed, particularly downwind and I am very happy with my new boat.”

Ainslie now leads the fleet by eight points from Sebastien Godefroid of Belgium with the 1996 Olympic champion Mateusz Kusznierewicz of Poland third. Ainslie’s team mates Andrew Simpson and Matt Howard are placed eighth and sixteenth respectively.

The 49er fleet enjoyed close racing just off the harbour wall and completed a further three races in tricky conditions. Team GBR sailors and Athens 2004 representatives Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks scored a second and two tenth places to move up to fourth overall and tied on even points for third place.

Hiscocks commented, “It was very light today and we missed a few opportunities. However, it is a long regatta and you don’t know if you have had a good day or a bad day until the event is over, but it certainly wasn’t a bad day.”

World champions Iker Martinez and Xavier Fernandez of Spain currently lead the fleet from Michael Hestbek and Dennis Dengsoe of Denmark. Fellow team GBR sailors Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes are eleventh overall.

Both the Yngling and the Star class experienced difficult conditions on their course with very light winds which often died off completely.

Team GBR sailors Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell managed to make the most of the damaging conditions, and a seventh and a twelfth sees them going into the penultimate day of the regatta in fourth place, just two points off third placed Roberto Bermudel de Cas and Pablo Arrarte of Spain. Canadian sailors Ross Macdonald and Mike Wolfs are the new event leaders after scoring a second and a third place in the days racing.
The fleet turned inside out on a few occasions on the Yngling course but the German team of Kristin Wagner, Anna Hoell and Veronika Lochbrunner managed to maintain their lead over the fleet after scoring a first and a tenth place. Great Britain’s Shirley Robertson and team mates Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb got caught the wrong side of a few shifts and dropped to seventh place overall after scoring a seventeenth and a 22nd.

In the Mistral women’s fleet Natasha Sturges sailed a consistent day in the challenging conditions, scoring an eighth and a fourth, she is still placed third overall. There was no change in the podium places with Amelie Lux of Germany leading the fleet from Jessica Crisp of Australia.

In the men’s fleet Team GBR sailor Nick Dempsey scored a twelfth and a fifth and is placed sixth overall. Joeri Van Dijk of the Netherlands is lying in first place overall in front of the current world champion Julien Bontemps of France.

Top 10 results:

Pos	Nat	Helmsman		Crew	Crew 2	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot
1	GER	Kristin	Wagner	Anna Hoell	Veronika Lochbrunner	2	1	4	5	1	10	13
2	NOR	Karianne	Eikeland	Beate Kristiansen	Lise Birgitte Fredr	3	6	2	22	4	5	20
3	ITA	Giulia	Conti	Alessandra Marenzi	Angela Baroni	15	10	5	9	3	1	28
4	NED	Annelies	Thies	Annemieke Bes	Petronella de Jong	11	3	8	4	12	18	38
5	USA	Betsy	Alison	Lee Icyda	Suzy Leech	OCS	7	1	12	6	13	39
6	RUS	Ekaterina	Skudina	Tatiana Lartseva	Diana Krutskikh	4	4	21	1	20	11	40
7	GBR	Shirley	Robertson	Sarah Ayton	Sarah Webb	1	5	12	6	17	22	41
8	CAN	Lisa	Ross	Chantal Leger	Deirdre Crampton	17	8	6	10	5	12	41
9	FRA	Anne	Le Helley	Marion Deplanque	Elodie Lesaffre	6	17	7	11	10	9	43
10	USA	Carol	Cronin	Elizabeth Filter	Nancy Haberland	14	19	13	2	9	7	45

Pos	Nat	Helmsman		Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	Tot
		470 men
1	USA	Paul	Foerster	Kevin Burnham	6	1	11	1	1	1	1	8	1	12
2	POR	Alvaro	Marinho	Miguel Nunes	5	7	OCS	2	9	3	3	2	2	24
3	NED	Sven	Coster	Kalle Coster	7	3	1	10	6	10	7	5	7	36
4	ITA	Gabrio	Zandona	Andrea Trani	4	2	5	7	3	15	17	1	15	37
5	POL	Tomasz	Stanczyk	Tomasz Jakubiak	1	4	7	14	5	20	11	6	5	39
6	DEN	Kristian	Kjaergaard	Mads Moeller	15	10	8	4	11	7	2	20	8	50
7	RUS	Dmitry	Berezkin	Mikhail Krutikov	OCS	OCS	13	12	2	2	5	13	4	51
8	SUI	Lukas	Erni	Simon Bruegger	13	5	3	9	4	21	10	16	18	60
9	KOR	Daeyoung	Kim	Jung Sungahn	17	11	2	17	8	4	4	22	16	62
10	GER	Lucas	Zellmer	Felix Krabbe	22	14	10	5	18	5	16	12	3	65
		470 women
1	NED	Lisa	Westerhof	Margriet Matthijsse	1	2	OCS	1	1	2	3	1	2	10
2	NED	Marcelien	De koning	Lobke Berkhout	6	1	OCS	5	2	6	2	2	4	22
3	AUT	Sylvia	Vogl	Caroline Flatscher	3	4	OCS	3	3	1	6	6	3	23
4	ITA	Elisabethia	Sacckeggiawi		7	DSQ	3	6	8	3	1	3	1	24
5	NZL	Melinda	Henshaw	Jann Schearer	4	3	2	4	4	5	4	4	5	25
6	RUS	Vlada	Ilienko	Natalya Gaponovich	2	6	1	2	5	4	7	DNF	DNF	27
7	SUI	Brugger	Marina	Brugger Nathalie	8	9	5	8	6	7	8	5	6	45
8	CHN	Xue	Li	Yu Yan Li	5	5	4	9	7	8	10	9	8	46
9	NED	Anna	Pot	Anna van der Stok	9	8	6	7	9	9	5	7	7	49
10	NED	Mandy	Mulder	Krzeminski Vera	10	7	7	DSQ	10	10	9	8	9	60
		Star
1	CAN	Ross	Macdonald	Mike Wolfs	9	6	10	2	2	3				13
2	BER	Peter	Bromby	Lee White	16	17	5	1	3	2				20
3	ESP	Roberto	Bermudel de castro	Pablo Arrarte	11	10	8	10	1	1				28
4	SWE	Fredrik	Loof	Anders Ekstrom	2	5	6	12	5	DNF				38
5	GBR	Iain	Percy	Steve Mitchell	4	2	11	8	7	12				39
6	NED	Mark	Neeleman	Peter van Niekerk	5	9	14	4	4	16				40
7	GRE	Leonidas	Pelekanakis	George Kontogouris	19	22	4	7	6	9				41
8	USA	Paul	Cayard	Phil Trinter	1	7	12	16	14	DNF				41
9	AUS	Colin	Beashel	David Giles	17	19	3	6	OCS	5				43
10	AUT	Hans	Spitzauer	Andreas Hanakamp	7	21	1	19	16	8				45
		49er
1	ESP	Iker	Martinez	Xavier Fernandez	6	14	2	1	4	3	5	3	4	22
2	DEN	Michael	Hestbek	Dennis Dengsoe	2	2	4	OCS	3	2	16	2	8	23
3	DEN	Jonas	Warrer	Peter Kruger Ander	3	5	13	1	7	2	1	18	25	32
4	GBR	Chris	Draper	Simon Hiscocks	4	6	2	2	6	10	2	DSQ	10	32
5	ITA	Pietro	Sibello	Gianfranco Sibello	5	1	11	3	1	1	12	15	23	34
6	UKR	Rodion	Luka	George Leonechuk	1	6	11	9	5	7	4	9	5	37
7	GER	Marcus	Baur	Max Groy	OCS	8	6	4	4	12	3	14	3	40
8	USA	Tim	Wadlow	Pete Spaulding	7	11	1	OCS	6	4	OCS	11	1	41
9	NED	Mats	Hellman	Pim Nieuwenhuis	OCS	2	1	7	16	3	8	5	18	42
10	AUS	Chris	Nicholson	Gary Boyd	10	4	6	11	9	1	7	OCS	7	44
		Tornado
1	AUT	Roman	Hagara	Hans-peter Steinacke	2	2	3	9	1	6	OCS	1	15	22
2	FRA	Olivier	Backes	Laurent Voiron	5	10	9	3	16	5	1	2	2	27
3	ARG	Santiago	Lange	Carlos Espinola	1	6	14	6	4	1	8	20	6	30
4	USA	John	Lovell	Charlie Ogletree	8	1	4	1	14	8	7	7	7	30
5	FRA	Yann	Guichard	Christophe Espagnon	10	8	1	5	13	3	2	16	11	32
6	NED	Mitch	Booth	Herbert Dercksen	4	3	2	11	2	14	9	13	12	36
7	ESP	Fernando	Echavarri	Anton Paz	6	5	13	OCS	3	2	11	12	14	45
8	RUS	Andrey	Kirilyuk	Valery Ushkov	12	9	10	7	19	15	4	4	9	50
9	SWE	Martin	Strandberg	Kristian Mabtssan	7	16	11	2	21	10	OCS	5	8	50
10	GBR	Leigh	Mcmillan	Mark Bulkeley	3	12	17	8	6	4	OCS	10	16	51

Pos	Nat	Sailor		R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R6	R7	R8	Tot
		Europe
1	NOR	Siren	Sundby	1	1	1	1	1	1	3	1	3	7
2	FRA	Blandine	Rouille	5	3	2	8	2	3	2	1	5	18
3	FIN	Sari	Multala	1	1	15	2	12	4	2	4	6	20
4	GER	Petra	Niemann	2	2	5	3	2	2	19	5	7	21
5	CZE	Lenka	Smidova	5	2	5	10	5	5	5	3	4	29
6	USA	Meg	Gaillard	7	5	2	2	17	12	7	7	13	42
7	NZL	Sarah	Macky	3	3	3	20	18	1	20	11	4	43
8	IRL	Maria	Coleman	11	11	7	1	27	OCS	3	6	6	45
9	BEL	Evi	Van Acker	OCS	10	14	14	7	10	1	2	2	46
10	POL	Weronika	Glinkiewicz	2	7	9	9	13	7	7	8	18	49
		Finn
1	GBR	Ben	Ainslie	14	OCS	1	1	1	1				18
2	BEL	Sebastien	Godefroid	3	5	6	4	8	14				26
3	POL	Mateusz	Kusznierewicz	1	7	4	2	20	15				29
4	GRE	Emilios	Papathanasiou	5	6	16	6	4	13				34
5	IRL	David	Burrows	13	12	3	3	22	7				38
6	FRA	Guillaume	Florent	2	10	8	17	10	31				47
7	BRA	Joao	Signorini	10	9	7	16	32	6				48
8	GBR	Andrew	Simpson	9	17	2	15	6	32				49
9	DEN	Soren	Holm	23	3	15	14	12	8				52
10	CRO	Marin	Misura	8	OCS	9	20	7	9				53
		Laser
1	SLO	Zbogar	Vasilij	2	1	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	7
2	SWE	Karl	Suneson	OCS	9	2	1	3	1	1	1	6	15
3	DEN	Anders	Nyholm	4	4	1	14	11	3	11	2	1	26
4	FRA	Pruvot	Felix	OCS	2	4	12	7	4	3	3	5	28
5	TUR	Kemal	Muslubas	5	1	12	9	2	6	13	4	2	29
6	GRE	Evangelos	Chimonas	17	OCS	7	4	7	2	2	5	2	29
7	RSA	Gareth	Blanckenberg	6	OCS	8	2	1	2	5	7	10	31
8	NED	Marc	De haas	3	5	17	2	9	8	4	6	8	36
9	GRE	Antonis	Manolakis	1	10	5	11	6	11	6	6	4	38
10	SEY	Allan	Julie	2	7	3	3	13	7	16	16	10	45
		Mistral men
1	NED	Joeri	Van dijk	1	15	4	2	1	3				11
2	FRA	Bontemps	Julien	4	1	2	10	3	4				14
3	ARG	Marcos	Galvan	5	2	8	3	15	12				30
4	ARG	Martin	Benitez	16	5	1	OCS	7	2				31
5	UKR	Oberemko	Max	6	10	3	4	10	8				31
6	GBR	Nick	Dempsen	10	3	9	7	12	5				34
7	HKG	Chi ho	Ho	2	14	5	9	6	18				36
8	FRA	Huguet	Nicolas	3	8	OCS	8	11	10				40
9	HKG	King yin	Chan	11	16	17	6	4	7				44
10	FRA	Adrien	Gaillard	9	11	12	11	8	14				51
		Mistral women
1	GER	Amelie	Lux	3	14	4	1	2	5				15
2	AUS	Jessica	Crisp	5	6	6	2	3	3				19
3	GBR	Natasha	Sturges	10	1	OCS	3	8	4				26
4	HKG	Lai shan	Lee	1	OCS	3	OCS	1	2				29
5	UKR	Olga	Maslivets	16	10	2	4	6	8				30
6	GER	Romy	Kinzl	6	2	5	6	11	12				30
7	FRA	Faustine	Merret	2	OCS	1	OCS	5	1				31
8	BEL	Sigrid	Rondelez	4	5	9	8	10	11				36
9	USA	Lanee	Beashel	8	9	8	9	4	14				38
10	HKG	Wai man	Chan	12	3	DSQ	11	9	6				41