Dutch domination

A report from day two of the Yngling Women's Worlds in Santander

Perfect sailing conditions greeted the 37 crews competing for the Yngling World Championships at the Real Club Maritimo de Santander. With a light 5-8 knot NW breeze blowing under clear blue skies, the Race Committee took the opportunity to catch up from yesterdays abandoned Race 2.

Race 2 say a depleted fleet of 30 boats get cleanly away first time. The remaining seven crews having been black flagged yesterday and therefore were ineligible to race in today's race.

It was the Australians Nicky Bethwaite, Kristen Kosmala and Karyn Gosnic who showed everyone a clean pair of heels leading the fleet round every mark to win the race. However they were pushed all the way by the German team led by Kristin Wagner who finished only a boat length behind. These two finished comfortably ahead of the rest of the fleet which was headed by the boats of Annalies Thies, Dorte Jensen and Italian Cristiana Monina.

Race 3 saw Shirley Robertson, Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb get the best start leading the fleet up the first beat. After yesterday's tactical nightmare, today's conditions saw a much more stable wind which gave the fleet more options on the beats and the runs.

The Swedish crew of Lena Carlsson, Sonia Svensson and Ingrid Soderst were the only boat to be judged OCS at the start but didn't return. At the top mark Robertson rounded just ahead of Dane Trine Palludan closely followed by Janneke Hin. On the run, many places changed and it was the Americans Sally Barkow, Carrie Hawe and Debbie
Capozzi who benefited the most to round in second place, just behind Hin, Robertson finding less wind on the far right of the run and rounding in fourth place.

Positions continued to change during the next beat and run but it was Hin who managed to hold on for the race win with Barklow in second and Robertson in third having made up a place. The rest of the top five were made up of Palludan and Schumann.

Race 4 started in 7-9 knots with the crews of Carol Cronin and Dorte Jensen being judged OCS. Ekaterina Skudina helming RUS 2 got the best start and headed to the right hand side of the beat. However it was the left that paid the most on the first leg with the first time crews of Yumiko Shige from Japan and Loreana Jacob from Columbia charging in from the left hand side of the course to round in eighth and fifth respectively. However it was Nicky Bethwaite's team who again showed good upwind speed to
round first ahead of the Canadian crew of Felicity Clarlce, Martha Henderson and Kari MacKay. These were followed by the Dutch boats of Hin and Thies.

The run again saw positions changing and this time it was the Greek crew who moved from tenth to fourth with Clarlce dropping down to seventh. This left Bethwaite to round first closely followed by the Dutch boats.

The second beat saw most of the fleet head to the right of the course with all of the top boats staying close to each other, neither one wanting to let the others out of sight. Again it was Bethwaite who rounded first ahead of the two ever chasing Dutch crews. On the final run, Hin split from the fleet and headed to the far right of the course and found an extra bit of wind, propelling the boat into the lead and to take their second win
of the day. Bethwaite had a struggle with Theis all the way down the run and in the end lost out with the Dutch crew taking second place and Bethwaite third.

Shirley Robertson's team finished 16th in the final race leaving them placed 24th overall after four races.

For those nations trying to qualify for the Athens, it is looking very good for the Dutch with two boats in the top four. The next nation is New Zealand who are sixth with Sharon Ferris, winner of yesterday's race. The next three nations are all very close with Canada 20th, Norway 21st and Columbia 24th.

This is the first time that Columbia have been represented in the Yngling and for the crew of Loreana and Jessica Jacob and Paula Douat this is also the first time ever sailing in the Yngling!

All three girls currently study and live in France and have rented an Yngling hoping to qualify for the Olympics. "Sailing in Columbia is very popular but we have never managed to qualify for any sailing event ever. We want to change this and to show the people of Columbia that there is another sport out there to go and try", said Loreana,
the skipper of the boat.

The girls aim is to qualify and carry on sailing at SPA and then the Yngling Europeans but this is mostly dependant on sponsorship. "We have got a sponsor in Visa but that is only for this regatta" explained Douat. "As this is the first time sailing the Yngling, on a borrowed boat with old sails, we hope to get much better as the week goes on!" They are supported by their father who has coached them from Optimists at the age of seven and also Jessica's boyfriend who is a Mini sailor from France. Together they have been able to tune the rig and alter the sails a little to suit their weight.

Tomorrow sees two more races with the same light winds and sunshine
forecast.

To see full results - click here