Brits win Nacra 17 Worlds

La Grande Motte, France (September 10, 2017) – Great Britain’s Ben Saxton and Katie Dabson pipped Spanish rivals Fernando Echavarri and Tara Pacheco in the medal race to win the 2017 Nacra 17 World Championship title on the French waters of the Baie d’Aigues Mortes.

Down the final run, the Spanish veteran Echavarri, 2008 Olympic gold medallist in the Tornado catamaran class, sailing with Pachecho, lead the British duo into the finish of the double points Medal Race but was lifted by the breeze and lost out to the flying, fully foiling Brits who judged to perfection their layline to the finish.

“In all my years that is the closest finish I have been involved in. It was decided in the last 20 seconds,” smiled Echavarri ruefully. “But to be honest if it is not us who won I am happy to see Ben and Katie win, they have worked hard and deserve it.”

“When we were coming towards the top of the second beat I said to Katie ‘world champions, all we have to do is pass that boat so we were gunning it down pretty hard, we really went for it,” reported helm Saxton who has been in the Nacra 17 since 2013 and was runner up for the World Championship title in 2013 in The Hague.

After a disappointing ninth at the 2016 Rio Olympic regatta, Saxton paired up only in May with childhood friend Dabson, a Plymouth University BA Hons graduate in Accountancy and Finance, who only went into full time sailing after completing her degree, inspired by the 2012 Olympics in Weymouth.

The new world champions have been friends at England’s Grafham Water Sailing Club since they were cadets and their fathers race a Flying 15 together on Wednesday nights.

For Dabson, who had a year spell in the 470, it has been a dream baptism into the class and catamaran sailing. The duo have sailed three regattas together and medalled at them all, third as the Sailing World Cup Finals and also taking bronze at the European Championship in Kiel, Germany.

“It is pretty surreal. I am so happy and was quite emotional crossing the finish line,” said Dabson. “Before May I did a year in the 470 but this is my first real Olympic sailing so it is amazing. It was down to which of the top three did best in the medal race, so we had a bit. We kept our cool. We raced our boat and we did it. Ben was just saying, ‘race our boat, keep our tempo, it is the same as any other race, you know what you are doing, so do it!”

Added Saxton, “We both work hard and we put together a pretty consistent week. We just kept on churning. We have good support here and they really keep us grounded. I know the Olympics are three years away but it is great to win. It is fantastic.”

Echavarri, sailing with Pacheco – who won the European title on these same waters in 2014 with Iker Martinez – completes a successful post Olympic season after winning the Sailing World Cup Finals on his native Santander waters and finishing runner up in the European Championships to Italy’s Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti who finish third, 14 points behind the Spanish runners up, whose best Nacra 17 Worlds result this is.

In the gusty, offshore, up and down 11-22kts breeze Tita and Banti tangled with Spain’s Iker Martinez and Olga Maslivets approaching the first windward mark. Martinez and Maslivets were dismasted and neither pair could complete the Medal Race course.

“We were arriving at the top mark and were below the mark so we needed two more tacks but there was not enough space to clear Iker,” said European champion helm Tita. “We tried to stop but we hit them, our bowsprit got stuck on their trapeze and ten seconds later their mast broke. It was a really big mistake on our part. We had a really good week but could have done better. Third place is not gained with a smile, we deserved to do better.”

Ironically at the first post Olympic meeting of all three 2016 Rio medal winners, none made the cut into the top ten qualifiers for the medal race. Australia’s silver winners Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin finished 11th and Argentina’s Santi Lange and Cecilia Carranza – who scored a BFD in the penultimate race – finished 13th. New Zealand’s Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders won both the last Finals races today prior to the Medal Race and finish fourth overall, repeating their Rio finish.

Despite getting penalized in the first three races for a measurement issue, the top North American team Riley Gibbs and Louisa Chafee (USA) finished 20th.

Racing was scheduled for September 5 to 10.

Final Results (Top 10 of 47; 18 races, 2 discards)
1 Ben Saxton/Katie Dabson (GBR) 92pts
2 Fernando Echavarri Erasun/Tara Pacheco van Runsoever (ESP) 95pts
3 Ruggero Tita/Caterina Banti (ITA) 109pts
4 Gemma Jones/Jason Saunders (NZL) 111pts
5 Paul Kohlhoff/Alicia Stuhlemmer (GER) 115pts
6 John Gimson/Anna Burnet (GBR) 115pts
7 Moana Vaireaux/Manon Audinet (FRA) 121pts
8 Lin Ea Cenholt/Christian Peter Lubeck (DEN) 122pts
9 Iker Martinez/Olga Maslivets (ESP) 128pts
10 Olivia Mackay/Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 129pts

Event details – Results – Facebook

Source: Nacra 17 class