South West Sailing

The Tornado World Championships are being held this week at Takapuna Beach in New Zealand and Cornish interest is centred on Andy Walsh and Tom Phipps and their crews in the 51-boat fleet.

Walsh and his crew Ed Barney after 4 races have had their usual maddeningly inconsistent regatta. On the opening day they posted a 5th and a 4th to lie in 3rd place overall and look well placed for a cracking event.

The pair were well up with overnight leaders the Germans Gaebler and Struckman and Dutch crew of Booth and Nieuwenhuis but the following day Walsh and Barney posted a 21st and 28th to add some 49 points to their overnight total.

In contrast whilst not winning either of the two races both the Germans and Dutch crews posted top 10 finishes to open up a 35 point plus differential lead over Andy and Ed.

Consistency and consolidation the key to winning an international regatta and something Andy and Ed maddeningly seem to lack just when they seem in a strong position to win a major event.

I accept there has been no discard yet in the 10 race series but the UK pair have dropped from 3rd to 14th overall and although it is barely halfway through the event the chances of a podium finish are remote.

The only consolation is that despite languishing in 14th the pair are leading the UK challenge as none of the other leading UK crews have fared any better.

Tom Phipps and his crew Marcus Lynch as one of the junior UK crews in New Zealand are having a roller coaster of an event and started with some gear failure in Race 1 to finish 43rd and have to retire from Race 2 to fix the problem.

On the following day whilst leading Race 3 the pair capsized to finish 22nd and then followed up with a 19th in Race 4 to lie 35th overall.

Full results next week.

Mylor’s Tom Phipps is about to compete in the Tornado World Championships at Takapuna Boating Club in New Zealand. This marks his second appearance in the Tornado Worlds having contested the 2007 event at Cascais in Portugal.

Phipps together with crewman Marcus Lynch will be hoping to improve on Phipp’s showing in Portugal where he finished 34th overall with former crewman Jon Cook.

This is Tom’s first year in the Tornado class and the step up to racing in an Olympic fleet has proved a challenging experience for the 19 year old. Multihulls are in his blood as father Brian Phipps is regarded by many as the finest catamaran coach in the UK and has had a active role in the RYA catamaran sailing programme over many years.

Father and son won a memorable Dart 18 Catamaran National Championships in 1999 when during one race in Torbay nearly the entire fleet of 100 boats capsized due to a freak gust of wind. Tom aged 10 was not put off by the experience and has enjoyed considerable success as a youth sailor winning 3 Youth World Championship medals.

In Gdynia in Poland in 2004 Tom together with Jon Cook won the Gold medal in the Hobie 16 fleet at the ISAF Youth World Championships and in 2005 at Busan in Korea the pair narrowly missed out on winning another Gold having to settle for Silver.

The Gold standard was resumed in Tom’s final Youth World Championships when at Weymouth the following year he and replacement crew Richard Glover prevailed yet again in the Hobie 16 fleet.

That was a particularly fine achievement as Jon Cook, Tom’s regular crew was sidelined with a broken arm and Richard stepped in as a talented last minute replacement.

The RYA do try and spread sailing talent across the Olympic classes and with Ben Ainslie, Ian Percy and Paul Goodison dominating the Laser and Finn classes over the pass few years other sailors have been persuaded to try alternative fleets.

Truro’s Andy Walsh a very talented Laser sailor was encouraged into the Tornado class and the RYA is active in ensuring we mount a serious challenge in all Olympic classes and will encourage sailors to race in a particular fleet if there is a perceived weakness.

Marcus Lynch (25) from Eastbourne another talented sailor in the RYA Olympic Development squad has been paired with Tom this year in the belief that the pairing is ideal for the Tornado cat with regards crew weight and the split between helm and crew.

Everything is a steep learning curve this year as the pair take on the world’s best cat sailors with a view to competing in the 2012 Olympic games.

Mentally their tune up and preparation cannot have been helped by the decision by the ISAF to delete the catamaran class from the 2012 games.

An appeal is pending to be heard in May when informed observers expect the decision to be reversed but if it is then another class will be dropped so there is no doubt politics will have a major say in the final outcome.

I really hope that the decision is reversed for the sake of Tom and Marcus and our other Cornish crew Andy Walsh and Ed Barney, as it would be terrific to hopefully have some Cornish involvement in 2012.

The RYA have invested considerable lottery money in seeking Olympic sailing success and as I have reported over the past few months the majority of Team GBR have been competing in Australia and New Zealand.

Tom and Marcus have been over in Australia since Christmas and been competing in all the top regattas leading up to the Tornado Worlds.

The GBR development squad for the Tornado fleet comprises 4 crews namely Tom and Marcus plus John Gimson/Stuart Bithell, Richard Glover/Adam Piggott and Chris Rashley/Nick Cherry. The senior squad comprises Leigh McMillan/Will Howden, Andy Walsh/Ed Barney and Rob Wilson/Mark Bulkeley with McMillan and Howden the chosen pairing for Beijing this August.

Tom and Marcus’s first regatta “Down Under” was the Tornado Asian Pacific Championships from the 2nd – 11th January and they finished 17th with Gimson and Bithell finishing 14th. In the Sail Melbourne regatta which commenced on the 14th January our boys finished 18th but again Gimson and Bithell managed to pip them finishing 16th.

The Tornados then moved over to New Zealand and the Sail Auckland regatta, which ran from the 15th – 19th February and yet again Gimson and Bithell had the better result finishing 16th overall with Tom and Marcus back in 22nd place.

All three regattas were won by the Aussie crew of Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby who currently seem unstoppable in the Tornado fleet with McMillan /Howden leading the GBR challenge but some way off pace.

Andy Walsh and Ed Barney have more than held their own finishing consistently in the top 10 boats in the fleet but have equally failed to seriously challenge Bundock and Ashby.

Takapuna is the final showdown for all the GBR crews both junior and senior and for Tom and Marcus it will set the pecking order for the next few years assuming of course the catamaran class is reinstated.

These world championship events are far tougher than the Olympic games as at the Olympics each nation is limited to just one entry whereas at the worlds entry is unrestricted.

Tom and Marcus are literally taking on the world (currently another 45 competitors) and probably the best cat sailors on the planet.

Fingers crossed and best wishes.

Weston Sailing Club on Southampton Water last weekend hosted the Tornado National Championships with 10 races scheduled over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

As usual the best-made plans in sailing largely depend on the weather and although there was plenty of sunshine there was precious little wind and as a result Friday was abandoned and only 6 races were completed on Saturday and Sunday.

Some 22 crews assembled at Weston for the event and being an Olympic class meant that although there were few entries there was undoubted quality throughout the fleet.

Truro’s Andy Walsh and Ed Barney probably need a miracle to displace Leigh McMillan/Will Howden from being chosen as the UK Tornado crew for Beijing next year but they are continuing to campaign right to the selection trials and appeared at Weston.

They were joined by several other RYA Transitional/Development and Performance Squad members including close rivals Rob Wilson/Mark Bulkeley, John Gimson/Stuart Bithell, and Chris Rashley/Simon Marks as well as several foreign crews from Australia and Demark.

With 2012 looming and the incredible current success of Team GBR in all the Olympic classes more and more overseas competitors will be competing in the UK to observe the techniques and coaching methods of the RYA and of course familiarize themselves with the joys of sailing in an English summer.

There was one other interesting Cornish entrant namely Tom Phipps from Mylor with a new crewman Marcus Lynch at the front end. Phipps twice an ISAF Youth World Champion in the Hobie 16 class is keen to have a shot at the Olympics with 2012 obviously the target and this season marks his debut in the Tornado fleet both at national and international level.

The loss of Friday meant that the Race Management Team got the fleet off early on Saturday and tried to squeeze in 6 short races in a light 8-knot Northerly breeze and a strong tide.

There was an element of snakes and ladders to proceedings with horrible shifts and strong tidal currents. As usual the cream does come to the top and the RYA squad members performed in style.

Race 1 went to Wilson/Bulkeley, Race 2 Gimson/Bithell, and Race 3 Rashley/Marks before the Danish crew of Allen Norregarrd/Michael Risor interrupted proceedings by winning Race 4.

Race 5 saw Walsh/Barney take their first win with Phipps/Lynch also making the podium in 3rd place.

The wind finally packed up altogether and curtailed any further racing to leave Gimson/Bithell as the overnight leaders closely followed by the Danes and Wilson/Bulkeley.

Sunday saw similar light conditions and Walsh/Barney lead off the line in Race 6 to gain clear wind and gradually pull away from the rest of the fleet to take a 2nd win.

None of the overnight leaders had a good race and this proved decisive as Race 7 was abandoned and with it sailing for the rest of the day.

That left a 6 race 1 discard series and by 1 point Andy and Ed claimed the title from fellow RYA squad members Wilson/Bulkeley and Gimson/Bithell.

Tom Phipps and Marcus Lynch had an encouraging event finishing 6th overall and can only improve as the teamwork and Tornado skills are perfected.

In tough light conditions it was a fine performance from Walsh/Barney and with light airs expected in China who knows?