Weather forces fleet ashore at 470 Europeans

Palma, Spain (April 8, 2016) – Various storm systems rolled across the race course on Friday, forcing postponement on the water, as the breeze swung to the west, rain filled in, visibility dropped and the breeze kicked up. Challenging conditions by anyone’s standards, a cold, damp and dreary day could not quash the spirits out on the race track on day 2 at the 2016 470 European Championship.

Race 3 in the 470 Women yellow and blue fleets got underway, but was abandoned due to the shifty breeze. With no improvement in conditions expected for the next couple of hours, the Race Committee sent fleets ashore in the hope that the weather would improve later in the day. By the time sailors had warmed up back at Club Nautic Arenal, the Race Committee confirmed racing was a “no go” just before 1600 hours local time.

As the fleet frontrunners and Olympic campaigners mix it at the front of the fleet, it is a race within a race for many. There are numerous teams for whom the 2016 470 Europeans marks their last chance to impress the powers that be and meet their national selection criteria for Rio.

Nations yet to declare their final 470 Olympic teams include Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Singapore, Spain, USA. Some will know their destiny by the conclusion of the 470 European Championships, whilst for others the national selection journey continues onto the final two events before the Olympic Games, Sailing World Cup Hyeres and Sailing World Cup Weymouth and Portland.

Germany’s Ferdinand Gerz/Oliver Szymanski qualified their nation to the 2016 Olympics at last year’s World Championship, and must now maintain nerves of steel as they seek to deliver the performance of their lives here in Palma.

“It’s not done, our last trials is the Europeans,” said Gerz. “The events were Europeans last year, Worlds last year and the 2016 Europeans. We have to meet criteria made by the German National Olympic Committee, which should be OK, but we need a reasonable result in Palma. We have to be in the top 10 nations after the three events.”

US Sailing Team Sperry athletes occupy top-ten positions in both divisions heading into Day 3. This year’s Europeans serves as the second and final U.S. Olympic Sailing Team selection event in the Men’s and Women’s 470 classes. All athletes selected by US Sailing for the Rio 2016 U.S. Olympic Sailing Team are subject to approval by the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC).

To finish the 5 race qualification stage, three races for the 470 Women will get underway at 1045 hours on Saturday 9 April. Two qualification races for the 470 Men, followed by one final series race, will start at 1115 hours.

Current USA Results:

Men’s 470:
2nd overall, Stu McNay (Providence, R.I.) and Dave Hughes (Miami, Fla.)

Women’s 470:
7th overall, Annie Haeger (East Troy, Wisc.) and Briana Provancha (San Diego, Calif.)
31st overall, Sydney Bolger (Long Beach, Calif.) and Carly Shevitz (Santa Barbara, Calif.)

Current Overall Results, Top Ten:

470 Men – Results after 3 Races
1. Lucas Calabrese/Juan De La Fuente (ARG 7) – 3 pts
2. Anton Dahlberg/Fredrik Bergström (SWE 349) – 4 pts
2. Stu Mcnay/Dave Hughes (USA 1) – 4 pts
4. Jordi Xammar/Joan Herp (ESP 44) – 4 pts
5. David Bargehr/Lukas Mähr (AUT 437) – 5 pts
6. Carl-Fredrik Fock/Marcus Dackhammar (SWE 350) – 6 pts
7. Ferdinand Gerz/Oliver Szymanski (GER 10) – 7 pts
8. Sime Fantela/Igor Marenic (CRO 83) – 9 pts
9. Deniz Cinar/Ates Cinar (TUR 890) – 10 pts
10. Simon Sivitz Kosuta/Jas Farneti (ITA 29) – 10 pts

470 Women – Results after 2 Races
1. Lara Vadlau/Jolanta Ogar (AUT 431) – 2 pts
2. Fernanda Oliveira/Ana Barbachan (BRA 177) – 6 pts
3. Silvia Mas Depares/Paula Barcelo Martin (ESP 18) – 7 pts
4. Noya Bar-Am/Rimon Shoshan(ISR 11) – 9 pts
5. Xiaoli Wang/Lizhu Huang (CHN 1221) – 10 pts
6. Ai Kondo Yoshida/Miho Yoshioka (JPN 1) – 11 pts
7. Annie Haeger/Briana Provancha (USA 1712) – 11 pts
8. Michelle Broekhuizen/Marieke Jongens (NED 6) – 11 pts
9. Nadine Boehm/Ann-Christin Goliass (GER 24) – 11 pts
10. Gil Cohen/Nina Amir (ISR 311) – 13 its

Racing continues daily to April 12.

Event website – Scoreboard – Facebook – USA Team report

About the 2016 470 Open European Championships
The 2016 470 Open European Championships is organized by Club Nàutic Arenal in co-operation with the Real Federacion Espanola de Vela and the International 470 Class Association. The racing format is an 11 race series scheduled for the 470 Men and 470 Women fleets, with 5 qualifying series races, before the gold and silver fleet split for the 6 final series races. The top 10 teams will then advance to the final Medal Race on Tuesday 12 April 2016. Titles will be awarded in the 470 Men and Women for the overall Open European Championship leaderboard and the European Championship for European nations.

Nations represented at the 2016 470 Open European Championships are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United States.