South West Sailing

Last weekend the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy hosted the 2nd
Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta the only UK Olympic Classes International Regatta and an annual event in the calendar in the run up to 2012.

There are 11 Olympic classes in the programme for Beijing 2008 and Weymouth hosted 9 Olympic fleets over the weekend with the only absentees being the Star and Yngling Classes. Weymouth will be the venue for the sailing element of the 2012 Olympics and so every sailing nation will be visiting the Academy prior to the actual Olympic Regatta.

Local knowledge will be an advantage and the RYA is basing the GBR Olympic Squad at Weymouth for the next 5 years and most serious contenders for Olympic selection are moving to Hampshire to make use of the state of the art training facilities and RYA coaches on site.

Sadly it means that there is little opportunity for any of the UK Olympic fleets to hold events anywhere but Weymouth, which I believe is a great tragedy given that Lord Coe’s sales pitch to win London’s pitch for 2012 was legacy.

I do not think that the youth of the South West will be motivated by an event, which will solely take place in the South East of the country. Indeed unless some of the training camps or build up events take place south of Bristol I think there will be no lasting legacy for the benefit of the nation’s youth.

As regards Cornwall I believe Carrick District Council and Cornwall County Council should both be pilloried for failing to see that a Falmouth Sailing Academy was built when the funds were allocated by the RYA back in 2000.

Visiting Weymouth you cannot help but be impressed by the facilities on land and sea to realise what Falmouth has missed out on. Falmouth would have never been the Olympic venue for 2012 but it was noticeable that 3 other RYA academies were sponsoring the Sail for Gold Regatta no doubt in anticipation of future spin off events.

This was my first visit to an Olympic Classes Regatta and it noticeable just how professional the GBR Team conducts itself and where the Lottery funds have been spent. After watching the efforts of the English Rugby, Cricket and to a lesser extend Football teams prepare it is refreshing to report on the Sailing Squad.

Watching the England v Samoan Rugby Match were around 30 of the RYA Elite Squads and despite sailing having concluded for the day I was the only spectator drinking alcohol.

The fitness levels are amazing, the sailing equipment immaculate and all members of the Squads looked like professional sailors, which of course they are but ones that are likely to win medals.

It is no fluke that GBR is currently the World’s top sailing nation and judging by results this weekend the team can approach Beijing next year with the expectation of at least 4 if not 5 or 6 medals.

The RYA had already announced 8 crew selections for Beijing just prior to the start of the Weymouth regatta and 5 of those selected went on to win over the weekend.

In the RS:X windsurfer classes there were wins for Bryony Shaw and Nick Dempsey both underlining their medal potential.

Likewise the 470 fleets confirmed the selectors choice with Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield winning the men’s event and Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark the women’s event. I should mention Nic Asher and Elliot Willis in the Men’s 470 fleet who led after 2 days of the regatta and pushed Rogers and Glanfield all the way.

Competition is tough in every fleet and it is one of the reasons why our top sailors are so good. The pressure is always on and comes not just from foreign competitors but also from the home team.

This no more clearly demonstrated than in the Laser and 49’er fleets. In the Laser Class Paul Goodison has been nominated for Beijing but he was beaten into 2nd place by Nick Thompson at 21 a definite challenger for 2012 and some 8 years Goodison’s junior.

Lose form or lack commitment and the next generation of GBR sailors will pass you by and take over your place in RYA Elite Performance Squad. It really is that ruthless.

Suffering a similar embarrassment were Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes in the 49’er class having recently won the 49’er Worlds in Cascais and the Olympic Test Event last month they were also relegated into 2nd place by youngsters John Pink and Simon Wheeler. To be fair to Stevie and Ben the 49’er fleet along with the Tornado fleet lost 2 days racing due to high winds.

It is tough and expensive at the top end of the 49’er fleet and sadly for Restronguet’s Ed Powys and Will Morgan having finished in the top 10 to qualify for the medal race the pair had a catastrophic mast failure and the whole rig came down. Carbon fibre spars do not come cheap.

In the Tornado fleet Andy Walsh and Ed Barney had a great opportunity to beat the Beijing bound crew of Leigh McMillan and Rob Howden qualifying for the Medal race in 2nd position just 3 points in arrears. The Medal race incurs double points and cannot be discarded so Andy and Ed just needed to finish 2 places in front of McMillan and Howden to take the Gold Medal.

Sadly McMillan and Howden got a fabulous start and covered Andy and Ed throughout the 2-lap race. Even worse Rob Wilson and Mark Bulkeley slipped past the duel and won the Medal race to demote Walsh and Barney down to 3rd place and the Bronze medal.

Showing good form were Tom Phipps and new crewman Marcus Lynch who won 1of the 4 qualifying races and also qualified for the Medal race. The pair tried an ambitious port hand start and were forced to duck the rest of the fleet and finished 8th to end up 6th overall.

In the Laser Radial fleet the RYA have not made a final decision as to who will go to Beijing and have indicated that the choice will be made out of Penny Clark, Lizzie Vickers, Andrea Brewster and Charlotte Dobson.

At Weymouth the girls had a tremendous tussle with Penny Clark coming out on top by 1 point from Laura Baldwin with Lizzie Vickers 3rd, Charlotte Dobson 8th and Andrea Brewster 13th. Our own Rosie Chapman finished 20th overall but just failed to post enough top 20 results to make the Medal race and challenge the leading UK female sailors.

Finally Ben Ainslie did not compete in the Finn class, which was won by his main rival for Beijing selection Ed Wright and although I can’t see Wright getting the nod over Ainslie, Ben will need a good result at the Finn Gold Cup in Melbourne next January to be sure of selection.

Last weekend Poole Yacht Club staged the Poole Junior & Youth Regatta and Cornwall was well represented by strong contingent of Restronguet Sailing Club Juniors. 6 races were held with 3 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday with 5 races to count.

In the Laser 4.7 fleet James Grant dominated counting 5 wins and discarding a 2nd to post the perfect score with Roger Stabbins finishing 3rd, Harvey Davies 6th and Alice Burford 19th.

In the 102 strong Optimist fleet there was an equally impressive showing with David Grant fishing 1st overall, Christian Townrow 2nd, Jack Martin 14th, William Wilson 40th and Joe Burford 59th.

Visitors dominated the Dart Grand Prix meeting held at Pentewan last weekend with victory going to Alan and Fiona Kernick from Stokes Bay from Andrew and Clare Round (Royal Yorkshire Yacht Club) and Cedric and Jane Winter (Restronguet).

6 races were held with 3 sailed on Saturday in a delightful sunny F3/4 breeze and 3 sailed on Sunday in a miserable wet F5/6 and big seas.

Come the last race on Sunday and the fleet had been halved in number due to gear failure and fatigue.

It was announced at the Southampton Boat on Friday that Ben Ainslie was to be the Skipper and Helmsman of the TeamOrigin the British challenge for the 33rd Americas Cup to be staged in Valencia in 2009.

Ainslie has pursued a dream of helming a British Americas Cup boat for several years and with the Team assembled by Sir Keith Mills and Mike Sanderson I believe he is in with a great chance of actually regaining the “Auld Mug”.

 Kiwi Mike Sanderson was an inspired choice by Mills as the Team Director and the pair of them have recruited a formidable group of sailors and designers to mount a serious challenge to Alinghi the current Cup holders.

Sanderson is a proven winner at the highest level of international yacht racing winning the Volvo Ocean Race on board ABN AMRO ONE as skipper and team leader in 2006.

Prior to that victory he was also on board Grant Dalton’s two earlier Whitbread campaigns winning in 1993/4 in New Zealand Endeavour and finishing 2nd in 1997/98 in Merit.

Equally impressive is his performance in single-handed sailing finishing 3rd in the Open 60 Class in the 2004 Transat in Pindar AlphaGraphics, which but for a broken dagger board could have easily been a memorable debut victory.

Add in three previous Americas Cup campaigns with Tag Heuer in 1995, and BMW Oracle in 2003 and 2007 and a key involvement in the 150ft racing ketch Mari Cha IV and Moose’s CV is mightily impressive.

Sanderson visited Falmouth in 2003 in Mari Cha IV after shattering the East West Transatlantic Crossing Record and he must be now regarded as one of the top sailors in the world and a likely winner whatever the event.

Given his vast experience Sanderson has selected some of the best sailors in the world to partner Ben Ainslie. Stan Honey, Rob Greenhalgh and Justin Slattery join TeamOrigin and were part of the crew onboard ABN AMRO ONE.

Crucially Sanderson has also persuaded Juan Kouyoumdjian the designer of ABN AMRO to front up the TeamOrigin Design Team based in his office in Valencia.

Given Ainslie as the helmsman several of the leading members of the Team GBR Olympic and Performance Squads have also joined the team and these include Ian Percy, Andrew Simpson, Chris Brittle, David Carr and Andy Green.

It really is an immensely talented group of sailors and it must represent the best opportunity a British team has had of winning the Cup for decades.

Money has always been a stumbling block in previous AC campaigns but Charles Dunstone (Car Phone Warehouse) has joined with Keith Mills in providing part of the funding and several other sponsors are expected to be announced over the next few months.

Juan K designed ABN AMRO as one of the first of the new Volvo 70’s designed especially for the 2005/6 Volvo Ocean Race and it was easily the quickest Volvo 70 in the race winning 6 of the 9 offshore legs of the event.

2009 will mark the debut of a new design of Americas Cup yachts and so the defender and the challengers will be starting from a level playing field.

The feeling is that destiny awaits.

Ainslie really is entering a 2-year period in his life when he has the chance to rewrite history with a medal winning performance in Beijing next year and a Cup victory in Valencia in 2009 giving him a chance at immortality.

Victory in the Finn class at the Olympic Test Event at Qingdao last month has already given him an aura of invincibility in the Class having not set foot in the fleet for 12 months whilst on duty for Emirates Team New Zealand in the Americas Cup in Valencia.

Already a legend in the Finn for winning the Gold Cup (World Championship) 4 years in succession from 2002-2005 a feat never achieved before a win in Melbourne in January next year will confirm his position as red hot favourite for the Gold Medal at Qingdao in August.

Winning any medal at Qingdao will see Ben overtake Rodney Patterson as our greatest Olympic sailor with 4 medals at 4 different Games and then the stage is set for the Americas Cup at Valencia.

Some 300 of the World’s best sailors have assembled at Weymouth for the Sail for Gold Regatta, which started yesterday and runs through until Sunday.

This is an event for the Olympic Classes and will become an annual event in the build up to 2012.

Naturally enough using the Proposed 2012 Olympic venue means that all the world’s best sailors will attend at least one of these events prior to 2012 to familiarize themselves with the venue.

The RYA has already announced that Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson (Yngling), Stevie Morrison/Ben Rhodes (49’er) and Paul Goodison (Laser) have already been selected for Beijing.

Subject to achieving some specific individual targets and performances Nick Dempsey (RS:X), Bryony Shaw (RS:X), Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield (470), Christina Bassadone/Saskia Clark (470) and Leigh McMillan/Will Howden (Tornado) will also be selected.

The selection of the Star and Finn representatives will be deferred until the New Year and the Laser Radial representative will be chosen out of Charlotte Dobson, Penny Clark, Andrea Brewster and Lizzie Vickers again with a decision expected in the Spring.

Sadly that means disappointment for Truro’s Rosie Chapman who I suspect was always targeting the 2012 Olympics as her main goal.

All five girls are competing at Weymouth this weekend and so Rosie will have an opportunity to outperform the 2008 chosen ones.

Equally Restronguet’s Ed Powys/ Will Morgan are competing against Stevie Morrison/Ben Rhodes in the 49’er Class and it a wonderful opportunity for the young pair to test themselves against the current World Champions and World No 1 ranked crew.

Few other sports give you the chance to test yourself against the best.

Similarly Mounts Bay sailor George Cousins is up against Paul Goodison in the Laser fleet and Mylor’s Tom Phipps and Marcus Lynch are competing in the Tornado fleet against Leigh McMillan/Will Howden.

Andy Walsh/Ed Barney are also competing in the Tornado fleet and it must be with some degree of bitterness as they realize the Olympic dream for them in 2008 is now at an end.

The test will be whether they remain together and have a crack at selection for 2012 or they abandon the dream altogether. Whatever they decide I do hope they have a great regatta this weekend and of course embarrass McMillan/Howden.

Full report next week.

This weekend the Laser Radial and Standard fleets held their 2nd Qualifier for the 2008 World and European Championships.

5 races were held with 2 raced on Saturday in a very light 5-knot Easterly breeze and 3 raced on Sunday in an 8/10 knot Westerly.

In the Radial fleet Laser Maestro Jon Emmett won counting 3 x 1st and a 4th from Penny Clark (2 x 1st, 2nd and a 4th) in a 5 race 1 discard series.

Charlotte Dobson finished 3rd overall and Rosie Chapman finished 14th overall and was 5th overall in the woman’s event. Restronguet’s Joanna Ireland finished 39th overall and Robin Elsey 68th overall in the 92 boat fleet.

The Standard fleet was dominated by Paul Goodison (4 x 1st) and Nick Thompson (1 x 1st, 3 x 2nd) with Philip Reynolds from Saltash finishing 17th overall and George Cousins 25th overall.

In the Laser ladders, which will determine selection for the Laser events Rosie lies 17th overall and is the 8th lady on the ladder and so should gain selection for the European Championships.

Joanna Ireland in her first season of Radial competition is currently 57th overall.

George Cousins meanwhile is 22nd overall on the Standard ladder and 7th Youth, which should see him also selected at least for the Youth European Championships.

The next Qualifier is at Hastings in the first weekend in October so there is still plenty at stake especially for those in the Radial fleet seeking selection for the 2008 Olympics.

27 boats assembled for J24 Nationals at Parkstone last Thursday for a four day 8 race 1 discard series.

Light winds prevailed and for the umpteenth time Stuart Jardine and his crew sailing Stouche emerged as the National Champions. Stouche counted 3 wins and was never out of the top 10 boats in any of the 8 races.

In 2nd spot were the Falmouth boys on board Roger Rabbit who counted 2 wins and a 3rd in their 7-race total but failed by 5 points to catch the Class Chairman.

This was Roger Rabbit’s best performance in the Nationals to date and puts them well on course to qualify for the J24 Worlds in Italy next year.

Last weekend saw the St Mawes Sailing Club and the St Mawes Hotel host the St Mawes Harbour Race for the two Working Boat fleets.

In addition the St Mawes Harbour Company in conjunction with the St Mawes fishing fleet staged their 2nd Fishing Festival on the Town Quay.

The weather was glorious as was the fresh fish on the Quay although with only a light breeze both fleets could only manage a short 2-lap course around the Harbour.

The support for the event was fantastic with 16 starters in B Class and 7 starters in C Class.

A reaching start across the Club line for B Class provided a fabulous sight for spectators and Abigail Rose (Norman Bowers) managed to just slip around Castle Buoy 1st and hold off all challengers until approaching the Turning Mark at the end of the first lap.

The wind in the centre of the Bay dropped and becalmed the Rose allowing Rebecca (Phil Slater) Cousin Jinny (Graham Pearce) and Mabel (Peter Collett) all to slip through and leave Norman cursing his luck.

Rebecca having got clear wind then proceeded to pull away from her challengers to retain the Trophy she won last year. Mabel finished 5 seconds ahead of Cousin Jinny on the water to also take 2nd overall on handicap.

In C Class Lottie (Paul Ferris) lead throughout the race initially challenged by Zilpha (Simon Berryman) and Leila (Adam Bird) but both fell away to allow Krystal (Bruce Trevartha) to take 2nd place.

On Sunday it was the Falmouth Greenlawns Harbour Race and Rebecca (Phil Slater) again dominated the B fleet winning comfortably from Victory (David Carne) and Abigail Rose (Norman Bowers).

In C Class Leila (Adam Bird) took the spoils from Krystal (Bruce Trevartha).

As usual all crews adjourned to the Greenlawns Hotel for the usual legendary hospitality making this weekend probably one of the best on the Working Boat calendar.

Don’t forget this weekend sees the St Mawes Fish Festival and Working Boat Harbour Race this Saturday and the Falmouth Greenlawns Harbour Race for Working Boats this Sunday. The weather forecast is fair and so both events should be spectacular.

I am delighted to report that Plymouth has won the right to host the 2008 Transat after a close bidding battle with another UK City after the organizers decided to invite offers to stage the regatta.

Offshore Challenges the organizers felt that Plymouth was not committed to running such a prestigious event and threatened to move the Transat to another venue such as Portsmouth or Southampton.

It is great news that Plymouth responded to the threat although I suspect that it was only the involvement of Conrad Humphreys and Sutton Harbour Group that saved the day.

Well-known offshore yachtsman Humphreys fronted up Plymouth’s bid for the Transat and Sutton Harbour agreed to allow the whole race organization to be based in Sutton Harbour at the Barbican.

A Race Village will be built around the Barbican and all the competitors’ yachts will be based at Sutton Harbour. The event starts on the 11th May and the Race Village will be in operation for 10 days prior to race day.

All are welcome and if you have never seen any of the current generation of Open 60s or Trimarans then I would suggest spending a May day in Plymouth.

The future of the 60 ft trimaran class has been in doubt and it will be interesting to see who materializes at Plymouth but the other option is to open the fleet up to a new generation of 70 ft tris.

The 2004 start in Plymouth Sound was awesome with the trimarans rocketing off the line with 2 hulls out of the water and cascades of spray flying off the bows. There were no real starting maneuvers just sheeting in on the main and applying the power and in the blink of an eye they were gone.

Sailing any boat single-handed is a skill sailing 60 ft trimaran across 2800 miles of Atlantic Ocean is just simply phenomenal and I can’t wait for 2008.