Open book

Toby Heppell reviews the talent taking to the waters off Los Angeles for the Laser Radial Worlds

When looking at who the top sailors are in the Laser Radial fleet there is one overwhelming problem; there are simply too many of them. In the Laser fleet the form guide is fairly fixed and may stay that way up to the Olympics in Beijing. In that class there are about seven sailors that can be relied upon to do well and a couple of wild cards. In the Laser Radial, taking over from the Europe as the women’s singlehander for Beijing, at this stage almost everyone is a wild card with many sailors still getting to grips with the class and very few consistent performers.




Paige Railey (1)

If there is one person at this stage who looks like being the main contender for an Olympic Gold it is American Paige Railey. Since the Laser Radial was adopted she has leapt onto the International Olympic stage.

Railey is perhaps the ultimate exciting sailor with a propensity to win by a country mile and to throw all her chances away with OSCes and surprisingly poor results occasionally. She manages to combine all of these attributes in what turn out to be nail biting regattas.

In 2005 and very early 2006 this young American won almost everything going, including but not limited to: the Miami OCR, Hyeres Regatta, the Princess Sofia, the Youth Worlds, the Laser Radial European Championship, the Laser Radial World Championship and the ISAF World Sailing Games.

When the Laser Radial was first selected as the Women’s Olympic Singlehander there was much speculation over whether the youth Laser Radial sailors would be at the front or whether the top Europe sailors would be. Railey is definitely in the former category still being a youth Radial sailor up until mid-2005. This history in the Radial does raise some interesting possibilities; especially given we are still a long way from the Olympics. The first and perhaps biggest question is whether Railey is dominating in the Radial because she has been sailing it for longer. There are some possible similarities here with the 49er at the 2000 Olympics, where in the years preceding the event Chris Nicholson was a largely dominant force. It was widely accepted that Australia had been racing similar skiffs for so long they were probably going to win the first gold medal. However, by the time the Olympics came around everyone else was used to the boat as well and Nicholson ended up off the podium. Will Railey end up in the same position?




Anna Tunnicliffe (2)

After Railey lies another American Radial sailor, Anna Tunnicliffe. Actually born in Doncaster England but relocated to the States very early in her life 23 year old Tunnicliffe began sailing the Laser Radial in 2005 following a campaign in the Europe for Athens - she finished fourth at the US trials. Since then she has continued to improve at an impressive rate. Her results record shows both a good and frustrating record scoring many second places, many of which are events Railey has won. It is no surprise then, that Tunnicliffe is second in the world according to the ISAF rankings behind Railey.

Interestingly although they are both from the USA Railey and Tunnicliffe are not training partners. Tunnicliffe actually does the majority of her training with Canadian Radial sailor Lisa Ross and GBR Radial sailor Harriet Trumble.

Certainly having the top two Radial sailors in the World leaves the USA in a very enviable position but beyond these two female sailors there is little strength in depth. To find a place where there are significant numbers of high ranked Radial sailors we must take a trip across that rather large pond, the Atlantic Ocean.

Laura Baldwin (3)

Skandia Team GBR member Laura Baldwin has really come into her own since she competed at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens in the Europe class. Deviating from the well known RYA path to success Baldwin sailed Toppers followed by of all things Solos before moving into the Radial then the Europe and now back to the Radial again (to find out more about Baldwin read our pre-Athens interview with her here).

Compared to many of the top Radial sailors Baldwin is perhaps unique in that following her time in the Europe she is not the biggest fan of the Radial. She believes the Radial is not as good a boat and will argue that it is in fact more expensive, due to broken equipment, than the Europe was to campaign. Having said this, over the course of the last two years she has come to like some of the Radial’s quirky characteristics and presumably enjoys regularly being at the front of the fleet.

Baldwin is apart from anything else a very consistent sailor. She is always up in the top few and can usually pull back from a poor result to an acceptable one. Perhaps the biggest criticism you can make of Baldwin is a lack of excitement in the Railey win or lose sort of way. This is not a significant problem but she could do with improving her overall win record. Having said this, the Olympics is a while away and she is definitely improving still.

A recurring theme in the Radial fleet is the cross training from country to country. As we have already seen, Tunnicliffe trains against a Canadian and a Brit, not to be outdone Baldwin’s training partner is Railey. Currently if results are anything to go by the two seem to feed off each other extremely well and the prospect of a down to the wire Olympic showdown between the two friends is an exciting one.




Evi Van Acker (8)

Reasonably unknown until this year the Belgium Evi Van Acker is one of the new up and coming faces of the Laser Radial world. She is a very steady improver and has started this year most impressively indeed. She won the Princess Sophia and Holland Regatta (formerly SPA) and just recently won the extremely light Laser Radial European Championship.

Van Acker takes competing at the very top level in her stride and is not one to suffer when competing under pressure.

This talented young sailor still has to prove herself over a long period of time, but if recent results were anything to go by we would certainly put a bit of money on her medalling at the next Olympics. Read our interview with her here.




Sophie de Turckheim (12)

De Turckheim is definitely up there in the list of top Laser Radial sailors and hails from the Europe to Laser Radial campaign group, having represented France at Athens ending up 28th, two places astern of Baldwin. However, since switching from the Europe to the Laser Radial de Turckheim has seen a significant improvement in her overall results having gone from being regularly in the teens to rarely out of the top three. Particularly dangerous in heavy weather she will almost certainly take a top position at next year’ ISAF World Sailing Championships in Cascais although she will need to work on her light wind skills for the Games in 2008.




Krystal Weir (4)

Krystal Weir is another well established youth name to add to the list. Having sailed Radials for a long time she is no stranger to the boat or to finishing on the podium when it matters.

Like many Olympic sailors Weir started at a very early age, sailing her first boat at the age of seven. In 2002 she was selected to represent Australia at the ISAF Youth Worlds in Canada sailing a Byte. In 2003 she was once again selected for the National Youth Team competing in Portugal finishing second place one point behind the winner. During the same year she competed in Warnemunder week Germany finishing first female and at Lake Garda she finished second at the Laser Radial Women’s Worlds. Krystal has been female Laser Radial National Champion in her native Australia for the past two years and is currently Victorian Open Laser Radial Champion.

Fifth in the last Radial World Championship Weir is looking like she has the potential to bring home a podium finish.

Lisa Ross (5)

Training partner to Anna Tunnicliffe Lisa Ross is Canada’s hope at the next Olympics. Typically she is not what you would call a blazing light but more of a slow burn type of sailor who is consistent if not spectacular.

Ross is a difficult sailor to follow, given the inconsistent nature of her results. She is capable of making the top five in almost any regatta you could name but capable is not always enough. She is training hard and is improving at a rapid rate but is currently more of an outside chance for a medal.

There are many sailors we could list in the Laser Radial fleet who are capable of taking victories but there are none who are definitely assured of them. While the US holds the top two spots in the ISAF Rankings at present it should be noted that Skandia Team GBR have three sailors in the top 10 with Andrea Brewser and Lizzie Vickers holding seventh and ninth places respectively.

The above is a list of those who are looking good at the moment but this could change and it is exactly this potential for many people to win that makes this fleet so exciting at the moment. It will certainly be interesting to see what happens at this years World Championships as competitors finish their summer and gear up for a long hard autumn and winter of sailing.

Racing at the Laser Radial World Championships, hosted by the California Yacht Club in Los Angeles, gets underway on Sunday, with 12 races scheduled running through until Friday.

Entries:

Nat	First name	Surname
ARG	Cecilia	Carranza Saroli
AUS	Sarah	Blanck
AUS	Megan	De Lange
AUS	Melanie	Dennison
AUS	Krystal	Weir
BEL	Evi	Van Acker
BLR	Tatiana	Drozdovskaya
BRA	Odile	Ginaid
BRA	Adriana	Kostiw
CAN	Isabella	Bertold
CAN	Victoria	Crowder
CAN	Danielle	Dube
CAN	Jessica	Lombard
CAN	Hayley	McLean
CAN	Keamia	Rasa
CAN	Lisa	Ross
CAN	Jennifer	Spalding
CHI	Arantza	Gumucio
CHN	Huiyu	Fan
CHN	Yuting	Mao
CHN	Huanqi	Shen
CHN	Xiaoying	Shen
CHN	Zhen	Su
CHN	Lijia	Xu
CHN	Jianyan	Zhu
CRO	Gea	Barbic
CRO	Tina	Mihelic
CRO	Renata	Petani
CRO	Mateja	Petronijevic
CZE	Veronika	Fenclova
DEN	Trine Julie	Abrahamsen
DEN	Alberte Holm	Lindberg
ESP	Alicia	Cebrian
ESP	Tamara	Echegoyen
ESP	Fatima	Reyes
ESP	Lucia	Reyes
FIN	Sari	Multala
FRA	Manon	Borsi
FRA	Solenne	Brain
FRA	Sophie	De Turkheim
FRA	Sarah	Steyaert
GBR	Laura	Baldwin
GBR	Andrea	Brewster
GBR	Rosie	Chapman
GBR	Penny	Clark
GBR	Charlotte	Dobson
GBR	Lizzie	Vickers
GBR	Alison	Young
GER	Franziska	Goltz
GER	Hanne	Jansch
GER	Petra	Niemann
GER	Janika	Puls
GER	Wiebke	Schroder
GRE	Virginia	Kravarioti
GRE	Eftychia	Mantzaraki
IRL	Debbie	Hanna
IRL	Claudine	Murphy
IRL	Ciara	Peelo
ISV	Sydney	Jones
ITA	Larissa	Nevierov
JPN	Mutsumi	Hamaguchi
JPN	Satako	Hasegawa
JPN	Ayumi	Ishikawa
MEX	Tania	Elias Calles Wolf
NED	Anneke	Bouwmeester
NED	Marit	Bouwmeester
NED	Gea	Jutjens
NOR	Elin Maria	Samdal
NZL	Jo	Alleh
NZL	Cushla	Hume-Merry
NZL	Miranda	Powrie
NZL	Olivia	Powrie
NZL	Sarah	Winther
POL	Katarzyna	Szotynska
POR	Sara	Carmo
SIN	Victoria	Chan
SUI	Nathalie	Brugger
SUI	Corinne	Meyer
SWE	Karin	Soderstrom
USA	Lauren	Bernsen
USA	Emily	Billing
USA	Danielle	Brennan Myrdal
USA	Claire	Dennis
USA	Genoa	Griffin
USA	Sarah	Lihan
USA	Katie	Maxim
USA	Carolyn	Prioleau
USA	Paige	Railey
USA	Margaret	Shea
USA	Anna	Tunnicliffe

Recently we published video of Laura Baldwin's top tips for sailing the Laser Radial

Click here to see Laura talk about the differences between the Europe and the Radial.
Click here to see a guided tour of Laura's boat.
Click here to see her on upwind technique.
Click here to see her on downwind technique.
click here to see Laura demonstrated two vital manoeuvres for the race course.