Two more bullets for Burling and Tuke

Difficult day at the 49er Europeans

At the combined 49er and 49erFX Europeans in Barcelona, it was a stressful final day of qualifying for the 72 boat 49er fleet, only 25 of which can make gold fleet. With seven of ten scheduled races completed there were still more than 20 teams hoping to sail well enough to keep their hopes alive.

The conditions were a combination of along the shore and offshore breeze, which made life difficult for the race officers and sailors alike. After the nine race of qualifying, the field had spread out from about 20 teams to eight, separated by six points, with half set to make the gold fleet and half stuck on the outside looking in.

The tightly pack group of teams started the day as follows:

A few teams added solid races to their tallies to ensure they’d be include in the top bunch, getting a chance to relax - none more so than Britain's Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign, who must chase hard all week to catch their fellow countrymen if they are to have a chance of Rio 2016 selection. Relegation from the Gold fleet would have whipped out their chances, but with a sixth, and an eighth, they were up to 16th overall and safe. 

The Poles, Tomasz Januszewski and Jake Nowak who had a 10th and a 1st to move up all the way to 19th.

But heading the opposite way were Tim Elsner and Moritz Klingenberg who with an 18th and 28th were back to 28th overall from 13th, needing a good race to rescue themselves.

Unluckily for some, the conditions were too shifty and the final qualifying race was cancelled to allow racing in the 49erFX fleet. 

Carl Sylvan and Marcus Anjemark of Sweden, on a high from Palma after Sweden took the final Olympic qualifying berth, were left on the outside looking in by only a single point. They lodged a protest for an incident between them and the Poles, POL 52, aiming to get the additional spot up the rankings to make gold fleet, as did Portuguese Olympic-bound sailors, Jorge Lima and Jose Costa, who felt the conditions should have forced the abandonment of the 8th race of the series, a race where they were third from last (which they could not discard due to a previous DNF).  The Portuguese duo sit only three points outside of the Gold fleet.

The Swedes won their protest, forcing the Poles out while the Portuguese lost their protest.

49erFX

Things were intense for the 49erFX racing, but for different reasons.  The conditions got windier, but otherwise remained just as shifty and gusty as before 

Only two races could be held after three hours on the water, with few teams making it through the day without any capsizes. 

Italy's Giulia Conti and Francesca Clapcich remain in the lead, but moving up to second with the best day on the water were Argentinian’s Vicky Travascio and Sol Branz. The Argentinians have been doing well in the breeze for the past few months and continued that trend in qualifying this week.

Teams got back to shore and with only two races completed had enough energy to share their wilder capsizing tales. American Olympians Paris Henken and Helena Scutt managed to back wheelie their skiff while fighting to rescue a capsize. Others told of making it around the forestay and taking leaps downwind off the swell headed in the wrong direction: typical skiff shore sharing.

The format for the 49erFX is a bit different due to the small fleet size: All 36 teams will now proceed to gold fleet from the 18 boat qualifiers, which means that the meaty part of the regatta is on its way. Only 12 points separate the top nine teams, so the race for the championship truly begins with gold fleet racing.

Gold Fleets Next

Gold fleets will race for the final three days, 25 boats in the 49er, 36 boats in the 49erFX. The 49er Silver fleet will be split into two equal fleets and will continue to race on an equal footing for places 26 through to 72.