Hungarians clinch it

World champions decided in Flying Dutchman Worlds at Sail Melbourne

In retrospect, because they were the defending World champions, it was no great surprise that Hungary’s Szabolcs Majthenyi/Andras Domokos won the Flying Dutchman Worlds at Sail Melbourne.

What was not apparent, though, was that the Australian contingent would fare so well, to the point where Norman Rydge/Richard Scarr would surprise themselves and others to take second place overall. Only three points behind the winners, they also won the Australian F.D. Championship just prior to the main event.

Continuing the Aussie effort, Brett Beyer/Roddy Johnson, the current NSW champions, finished fourth overall - just three places behind the No. 1 World ranked German Hans-Peter Schwarz and his some-time crew of Dutchman Peter van Koppen.

Perhaps the four Australian’s backgrounds in the Laser class held them in good stead – all were good Laser sailors, Beyer in particular.

The highly fancied Italian duo of Roberto Cipriani/Stefano Morelli filled fifth place. That fifth did not reflect their talent. Had their boat arrived in Australia on time and been released from customs quickly, their result may have been different. Along with other Italian and Spanish competitors, who were in the same boat, so to speak, all would have had time to acclimatise themselves to Melbourne conditions. This not being the case, it put them behind the eight-ball from day one.

Former three-time World champions and the fancied Aussie bet, Ian McCrossin/James Cook had an up-and-down regatta to finish sixth overall. The surprise package of the series though, came in the form of ‘Sandringham locals’, Victorian’s Gavin Dagley/John Dryden.

Only having sailed in the class for the past eight months, they stole the show. Had it not been for a torn spinnaker toward the end of Race 1, while leading the race and a disqualification for an OCS in Race 2, where their placing was a third, a fifth overall was within reach.

They were philosophical, ‘we were only hoping for a top fifteen, so this is a bonus, quite unbelievable,’ Dryden said.

Szabolcs arrived early enough in Melbourne, as did Schwarz, to take part in the Open section of the Australian titles, finishing on equal eight points, well in front of the next best placed Rydge, making both foregone conclusions for a top finish at the Worlds. The Aussies had other ideas.

The Hungarians did make it look easy though, their worst place a sixth, prior to a disqualification from Race 6. They sailed well in all conditions, as did the Germans. Rydge won the final two races, to overcome Schwarz by three points, the latter’s downfall an eight and fourth place in the final two races.

"We really enjoyed to sail here in Melbourne, we like the weather and the waves, we did enjoy ourselves here, but it would have been good to have some more days with more wind," Szabolcs commented.

What will never be known though, is what might have been had the championship reached its natural conclusion. Due to poor weather, competitors finished a day early – the Aussies, all of them, itching for another race, only a couple of points keeping them from better results.

"We very much wanted that last race, we were getting better with each race and now we will never know….," Beyer said.

Hosted by the experienced team at Sandringham Yacht Club, the FD’s sailed a mixed weather regatta, some days too light and two others too heavy - in excess of 35 knots constant, it was not an easy five days for anyone, including the Principal Race Officer, Ross Wilson.

"What else could he do, he did the right thing," was the comment from many as the waited ashore just about everyday, sometimes until 2.00pm, while race officials waited for fair sailing conditions.

However, they managed to finish six races with one drop and Szabolcs, along with other internationals and the Australians themselves, were amazed at the Australian performances.

In a country that does not have a big fleet of the former Olympic class FD, it is, as both Rydge and Beyer pointed out, difficult to gauge how good or bad you are.

"The big fleets are in Europe, that’s where we have been going the past year, to get some competition with the good sailors. We love this class, they are such a good boat to sail," Rydge, a 45 year old from Darling Point in Sydney commented.

McCrossin agrees: "They are technically quite difficult to sail, more so than a lot of other boats, but a bit forgiving on the body, say, compared to an 18 foot skiff. Good for us older heavier blokes."

Expressing his thoughts on the World series as a whole, Rydge had this to say: "This regatta was very difficult in terms of tricky weather and wind shifts. One of the best teams here was Cipriani and Morelli. They were unfortunate that their boat arrived here late, but to my mind they are the best all-rounders here.

"The main feature of this regatta was the strong performances of the Aussies. Richard and I went into Race 6 thinking ‘this could be our last race’, so we went for it, rather than keep an eye on our closest competitors and cover. We just couldn’t cover all of them. It worked, we won it.

"Realistically, we hoped we’d finish in a top five position. We started our preparation in the middle of the year at Kiel Week, where we finished second. We then went to the European Championships on Lake Como and finished sixth and that gave us a good indication of how the European sailors would go in Melbourne - we knew we had a lot of work to do.

"We know where our weaknesses are - we don’t sail in light air well, because we don’t get those conditions at home too often (although the pair had two wins in such conditions). We also need to improve on tight reaches.

"At home we (himself, the Beyer and McCrossin crews), get together only once a month at Sydney Flying Squadron, along with five or six others, it’s especially difficult for Freddy (McCrossin), because he has to drive up from the South Coast.".

A stalwart of the class for ten years, he and Scarr will go back to Europe this year to try and improve. Scarr lives in England for their summer anyhow, running his business, Dinghy Solutions, so it is not difficult for them to hook up. Their partnership came about from their Laser days, a phone call from Rydge sealing Scarr’s fate in the FD.

"I have hopes that our (Australian crews) performances here might encourage other Australians into the class. It really is the best boat and exciting boat to sail and the Aussie results show how strong we actually are in the class. Freddy and James (McCrossin and Cook) are the benchmark," Rydge added.

Andras Domokos agrees. "When we came here to Melbourne, we said ‘you always have to remember McCrossin and Cook, they might be older now (McCrossin is 55 and Cook 53), but they can still win big regattas sometimes, they are very very good sailors."

Results:

Pos	Skipper	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot
1	Szabolcs Majthenyi	HUN	1	3	4	1	6	[56.00Q]	15
2	Norman Rydge	AUS	4	7	[14.00]	5	1	1	18
3	Hans-Peter Schwarz	GER	2	2	6	7	[8.00]	4	21
4	Brett Beyer	AUS	[15.00]	1	11	3	4	5	24
5	Roberto Cipriani	ITA	10	[13.00]	7	8	7	2	34
6	Ian McCrossin	AUS	[23.00]	4	2	6	13	10	35
7	Gavin Dagley	AUS	3	[56.00Q]	3	13	9	9	37
8	Toby Dale	GBR	13	5	1	4	20	[25.00]	43
9	Enno Kramer	NED	7	8	13	[14.00]	10	6	44
10	Kay-Uwe Luedtke	GER	6	23	8	[56.00Q]	2	7	46
11	Andrew McKee	NZL	8	11	9	[25.00]	24	11	63
12	Klaas Tilstra	NED	19	[56.00C]	18	12	14	3	66
13	Hans Genthe	GER	9	6	5	[56.00F]	11	39	70
14	Albert van Vianen	NED	[56.00F]	18	15	10	12	15	70
15	Frank Havik	NED	14	22	30	2	3	[56.00Q]	71
16	Gines Romero	ESP	5	14	24	30	5	[33.00]	78
17	Cameron Hooper	AUS	[30.00]	12	10	27	17	12	78
18	Hideo Tayama	NZL	26	19	22	17	[56.00F]	8	92
19	Peter Bartels	AUS	11	10	21	[38.00]	21	29	92
20	Kilian Konig	GER	[34.00]	31	19	9	23	13	95
21	Daryl Way	NZL	28	9	[32.00]	16	25	19	97
22	Uwe Steingross	GER	20	21	20	20	[28.00]	16	97
23	Peter Higgins	AUS	22	20	17	19	19	[24.00]	97
24	Hans-Albert Konig	GER	12	24	23	23	[27.00]	17	99
25	Langenslag Wim	NED	16	[56.00F]	41	11	16	20	104
26	Klaus Schober	AUT	17	15	25	28	[36.00]	23	108
27	Douglas Parker	AUS	18	17	26	26	29	[45.00]	116
28	Ian Dixon	AUS	21	16	[33.00]	31	31	18	117
29	Pieter Staal	NED	25	25	27	18	26	[30.00]	121
30	Craig Ginnivan	AUS	24	30	28	[37.00]	15	27	124
31	David Ham	AUS	29	26	12	[35.00]	32	28	127
32	Peter Woolman	AUS	27	[56.00F]	16	29	35	21	128
33	Gary Cameron	AUS	33	32	[43.00]	24	18	22	129
34	Ian Ruff	AUS	35	27	29	22	[39.00]	35	148
35	Frank Nooijen	NED	31	28	31	[43.00]	22	43	155
36	Peter Doran	GBR	39	36	34	[45.00]	34	26	169
37	Clovis Buijs	NED	51	41	[56.00F]	15	51	14	172
38	Hartmut Wesemueller	GER	40	34	37	21	41	[44.00]	173
39	Fulvio Colletti	ITA	32	33	42	[47.00]	38	32	177
40	Alberto Barenghi	ITA	36	38	[56.00C]	32	42	31	179
41	Andy Allsep	AUS	43	35	35	[44.00]	33	34	180
42	Christoph Baumann	SUI	38	[56.00Q]	36	34	30	50	188
43	Alisdair Daines	NZL	[47.00]	39	39	33	44	36	191
44	Georg Altenhain	GER	37	[56.00F]	46	36	40	42	201
45	Niels Kamphuis	NED	41	37	40	[46.00]	46	40	204
46	Alister McCowen	AUS	50	29	38	40	48	[51.00]	205
47	Paul Hemker	USA	44	45	[56.00F]	39	53	37	218
48	Tanja Heijink	NED	42	42	[56.00F]	50	49	38	221
49	Colin McLeod	AUS	46	43	[56.00F]	51	37	46	223
50	Daniel Manderson	NZL	[56.00F]	44	45	42	45	47	223
51	Andrew Belford	AUS	48	40	[56.00F]	41	47	49	225
52	Jorge Comin	ESP	45	[56.00F]	56.00F	48	43	41	233
53	Ray Dyson	NZL	49	[56.00F]	44	49	50	48	240
54	John Ford	AUS	52	46	[56.00C]	52	52	52	254
55	William Fenelon	AUS	[56.00F]	56.00F	56.00C	56.00C	54	56.00S	278