Hiscocks and Draper favourites

As 49er European championship fires up in Weymouth

With 95 teams from 24 nations due to contest the Group 4 Securicor 49er European Championships, Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks face a tough time defending their title, even it if it is on their home waters of Weymouth.

Based on their track record and the fact that Portland Harbour and Weymouth Bay are the waters they know better than any other, Draper and Hiscocks are looking like firm favourites. The British team have won the last two European Championships and would love to make it three in a row. “It would be great to get the hat trick,” said helmsman Draper. “We’re really happy with how our training has gone, and we’re using a new boat. In a way this is our most relaxed event of the year, as the ones where we really have to perform are the World Championships and the Olympic Test Regatta in China later this summer. So we’re looking to enjoy this one for the sailing.”

In some ways the pressure is off Draper and Hiscocks because they have already proven themselves with victory at the World Championships in France a month ago. Many of the other leading contenders stumbled at that regatta, which took place in very light winds on a lake at the foot of the Alps. These teams are looking for revenge and retribution at the European Championships, where they hope that the weather will offer a more all-round test of sailing ability.

“There are definitely a few guys who feel the need for a good result after the Worlds,” Draper commented. The reigning Olympic Champions from Spain, for example, could only manage 10th place in France but Draper reckons Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez will be right back on form in Weymouth. “We’ve been training with them here recently, and with their new rig they’ve been going very fast. So the Spanish are ones to watch out for, as are Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes.” The young British team recently finished 3rd in the Worlds but know that they are going to have to start beating Draper and Hiscocks at some major regattas if they are to be considered for the British team in the Olympics two years from now.

With three days of qualifying races beginning on Monday 24 July, the first hurdle for the top teams is to make sure they sail consistently enough to get through to the 25-boat Gold Fleet finals, which begin the following Thursday. Peter and Soren Hansen have been one of the form teams of recent years, but the Danish brothers faltered badly at the Worlds when they failed to make the cut for Gold. So it is particularly important for them to prove that this was just a temporary setback. “My hope is that we can finish at least inside the top 10,” said Peter Hansen, the helmsman in the team. “If everything goes well then I believe we could improve on last year’s Europeans when we finished 3rd overall.”

Weymouth was host to the 49er class’s first European Championship back in 1997 and on that occasion victory went to Marcus Baur and Phillip Barth. Now one of the ‘old men’ of the fleet but still one of the fastest, Baur is not holding out any realistic hopes of winning a second time in Weymouth. This will be his first regatta sailing with his new crew Hannes Baumann, one of Germany’s leading Laser sailors but a novice at trapezing in high-speed doublehanded skiffs like the 49er. “We have only sailed 13 times together in the 49er,” Baur explained, “and Hannes is learning very quickly. But we can’t expect too much from our first regatta together, other than to plot out a roadmap between here and the next two years to China.”

Baur puts his European victory nine years ago down to good boatspeed, despite his self-confessed tactical naivety back then. “We were just fast, and that was good enough to win then,” said Baur. “These days you have to be fast but you need to sail smart too.” Draper agrees. “You can see the level of tactics is growing in the 49er. As people’s boathandling gets slicker, it allows them to tack on smaller shifts and to make more tactical choices.”

The weather will play a large part in the proceedings, with the long range forecast suggesting the fleet will get a mixed bag of easterly and westerly breezes. With racing scheduled to take place both on the flat water of Portland Harbour and the rolling swell of Weymouth Bay, the regatta will provide an interesting insight into the sailing waters of the Olympic Regatta in 2012. Perhaps this is why so many non-European entries are converging on Weymouth, with teams coming from as far afield as Brazil, the USA and Hong Kong.

Following directly on from the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships which have just finished here, it will be another busy week for the organisers at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. As well as the 95 teams in the 49er, there are expected to be more than 130 teams entered for the 29er World Championships which are being run concurrently.

Event Director Rosie Julian commented: “We're delighted with the strength of entry at these Championships which, in terms of competitor numbers, will be the biggest sailing event staged to date at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy.” The Group 4 Securicor 9er Championships is run in association with the RYA, the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy and the 29er and 49er Class Associations, and is supported by UK Sport's World Class Events Programme.

Racing runs from Monday 24 July through to Saturday 29 July.

49er entries:

Sailor(s)	Country	Sail Number
Jonny Coates, Charlie Muir	GBR	GBR 967
pietro Sibello, Gianfranco Sibello	ITA	ITA 3
jesper Høeg, Mathias Aggerbo	DEN	DEN 778
Jan Peter Peckolt, Hannes Peckolt	GER	GER -TBA
Christoph Sieber, Clemens Kruse	AUT	AUT 36
Robert Dale, Hunter Lowden	CAN	CAN 836
Daan Schutte, Pim Nieuwenhuis	NED	NED 825
Richard Knight, mike halkes	HKG	HKG 972
Florian Kohout, Jurgen Brandstotter	AUT	AUT 809
John Pink, Alex Hopson	GBR	GBR -TBA
Stevie Morrison, Ben Rhodes	GBR	GBR 3
Simon Kosog, Kai Lassen	GER	GER 651
nathan Wilmot, malcolm page	aus	aus -TBA
Marcus Baur, Hannes Baumann	GER	GER -TBA
Ian Martin, Ben McGrane	GBR	GBR 924
Roger Gilbert, Olivier Vidal	GBR	GBR -TBA
LESTER noble, lee noble	GBR	GBR 908
jonas warrer, martin kirketerp	DEN	DEN -TBA
Cedric Fleury, Emmanuel Constant	FRA	FRA 800
Axel SILVY, Simon FREZOULS	FRA	FRA 895
PERON Eric, MOTTEAU Romain	FRA	FRA 728
Peter Krüger Andersen, Dennis Dengso Andersen	DEN	DEN -TBA
Emil Toft Nielsen, Simon Toft Nielsen	DEN	DEN 917
Tom Lönnqvist, Jacob Granqvist	FIN	FIN -TBA
Christian Christensen, Kasper Paulsen	DEN	DEN 981
Lennart Briesenick-Pudenz, Morten Massmann	GER	GER 903
tomislav basic, rajko kujundzic	CRO	CRO 954
Jonas Lindberg, Kalle Torlén	SWE	SWE 975
TOMASZ STANCZYK, PAWEL KUZMICKI	POL	POL 950
MARCIN CZAJKOWSKI, KRZYSZTOF KIERKOWSKI	POL	POL 23
PAWEL KACPROWSKI, ARKADIUSZ FEDUSIO	POL	POL 20
Jakob Enigl, Paul Schmalzl	AUT	AUT 898
Thomas Rein, Patrick Boehmer	GER	GER 734
Florian Kemper, Michael Krause	GER	GER 970
Jake Bartrom, Craig Prentice	NZL	NZL 643
Paul Meilhat, Mathieu Bourdais	FRA	FRA 919
Robert Espey, Richard McCullough	IRL	IRL 904
Nico Delle Karth, Nikolaus Resch	AUT	AUT -TBA
johnny McGaughey, johnny mcgaughey	irl	irl 746
Chris Gill, Jon Gill	GBR	GBR 519
Dave Evans, Rick peacock	GBR	GBR 969
george Richards, florian trancart	FRA	FRA 906
Dyen Manu, rocherieux yann	FRA	FRA 30
monteau alex, guillou damien	fra	fra 16
nicholas heiner, ferdinand west	ned	ned 962
Mark Dell, Paul Dell	GBR	GBR 749
Gabriel Wicke, Wolf Jeschonnek	GER	GER 808
IKER MARTINEZ, XABIER FERNANDEZ	ESP	ESP 99
ALBERTO PADRON, F. JAVIER DE LA PLAZA	ESP	ESP 7
FEDERICO ALONSO, ARTURO ALONSO	ESP	ESP 56
Toby Heppell, Rich Herbert	GBR	GBR 797
Goran Ivankovic, Ivan Ivankovic	CRO	CRO 959
Uffe Andersen, Christian Søgaard	DEN	DEN 782
Matt Bidwell, Felix Thornton-Jones	USA	USA 031
Bojan Vrscaj, Sven Forense	CRO	CRO 995
Alex Stothert, Dan Kilsby	GBR	GBR 493
Christopher Gundersen, Frode Bovim	NOR	NOR 939
Chris Draper, Simon Hiscocks	GBR	GBR 1
John Wilson, James Barker	GBR	GBR 935
Rodion Luka, George Leonchuk	UKR	UKR 1
Dimou Dionisis, Pateniotis Mihalis	GRE	GRE 69
GEORGE PANAGIOTIDIS, ALFONSO PANAGIOTIDIS	GRE	GRE 183
Russell McGovern, Matt McGovern	IRL	IRL 25
John Beatty, Robert Hepburn	GBR	GBR 672
R Bone, C Rodway	GBR	GBR 789
Gordon Cook, Ben Remocker	GBR	CAN 42
Leopold Fricke, Lorenz Huber	GBR	GER 870
Tristan Jaques, Alain Sign	GBR	GBR 872
Yannick Lefebvre, Wannes Van Laer	GBR	BEL 197
Morgan Larson, Peter Spaulding	GBR	USA 840
Matty Lyons, James Lyons	GBR	GBR 688
Tom Morris, Guy Filmore	GBR	GBR 656
Tom Smedley, Jony Clegg	GBR	GBR 708
Jeroen Van Catz, Wilco Stavenuiter	NED	NED 29
Serge Prie, de, Sander Bon	NED	NED 670
Jorge Lima, Francisco Andrade	POR	POR -TBA
Julien d'Ortoli, Ulysse Hoffmann	FRA	FRA 987
Andre Fonseca, Samuel Albrecht	BRA	BRA 823
Heinrich Bayern, Silvan Poschenrieder	GER	GER 889
Fred Shone, Hugh Shone	GBR	GBR 933
Mats Hellman, Henrik Hellman	NED	NED 864
Justin Visser, Simon Wheeler	GBR	GBR 653
Ed Chapman, Tom Dawson	GBR	GBR 748
Tim Wadlow, Chris Rast	USA	USA 14
Philip Hyde, David Hyde	GBR	GBR 862
lagraviere morgan, delpech noé	fra	fra 974
Josh Wilce, Olly Wilce	GBR	GBR 747
MARCUS SPILLANE, ROSS NOLAN	IRL	IRL -TBA
Giuseppe Angilella, pietro Zucchetti	ITA	ITA -TBA
matthieu dubreucq, geoffrey Gales	can	can -TBA
Paul Campbell-James, mark asquith	GBR	GBR 955
Peter Hansen, Soren Hansen	DEN	DEN 16
matthew kimber, hugo bull	GBR	GBR 583
kenjiro todoroki, Christian Steiger	JPN	JPN 41
Lauri Lehtinen, Heikki Soininen	FIN	FIN 828
luca bettiati, Marco Pedroni	ita	ita 958
Sander de Kok, Pieter Nijsse	NED	NED 657
MARCO FERRARI, ALESSANDRO FERRARI	ITA	ITA -TBA