Big Breeze at 420 Worlds

Fremantle, Australia (December 29, 2017) – Fremantle turned on a brisk day today with breezes at the upper limit allowed by 420 class rules. The result was predictable, with many crews struggling to cope with the fresh conditions and big waves.

Racing kicked off today, for the 12 race series scheduled over 6 days through until January 3, 2018 at Fremantle Sailing Club, Perth, Australia.

“We are happy about the results but we know we can go faster in these conditions,” said Spain’s Antoni Massanet, who finished fifth in the 420 Open Blue fleet today. His skipper Carlos Balaguer added, “The conditions were really difficult because it was strong wind and the waves are difficult as they are different to Spain.”

Fresh from their victory in the female 470’s in Sail Sydney, Autralia’s Nia Jerwood and Monique de Vries made a perfect start to their campaign with victory in both the first two races in the Ladies fleet. They finished second in this year’s 470 Junior Worlds, and have the proven talent to go all the way.

Showing the benefit of a home ground advantage, the first three places in both Ladies’ races were filled by Australian crews, Victorians Laura Harding and Eleanor Grimshaw taking a second and a third to be well in contention after their win in last week’s Nationals.

The large numbers in the Open Fleet saw the teams separated randomly into two groups, designated Yellow and Blue and although two races were run, the first was abandoned after one of the course marks broke free.

Victory in the second race of the Yellow Fleet went to Chris Charlwood and Josh Dawson, who would be delighted that the first race was dropped after finishing twelfth across the line. The French team of Enzo Balanger and Gaultier Tallieu were next and were very strong in the abandoned race also. First in the Blue Fleet were Spain’s Enrique and Pablo Lujan, followed by compatriots Eduard Ferrer and Carlos de Maqua.

Overseas entries dominate the Under 17 fleet. Germany’s Florian and Maximilian Buscher loved the heavy going, showing enormous boat speed to charge to victory in both races. Italians Tommaso Salvetta and Giovanni Sandrini were next with second and third placings, followed by countrymen Tommaso Cilli and Bruno Mantero with a second and a fourth. Spain’s Pol and Alex Marsans are not far behind either, promising some interesting competition during the remainder of the regatta.

It was a difficult day for the sailors. Some have never had the opportunity to sail in these conditions and were surprised at the size of the waves. Many lighter crews were stretched beyond their ability to keep their boats upright and there were many capsizes, keeping safety boats busy during the afternoon.

There was an incident resulting in minor injury today, when a boat became entangled in an anchor line after hitting a rounding mark, and then being struck by a following boat which was unable to avoid a collision. The two crew were returned safely to shore, one receiving first aid, confident of being back on the start line tomorrow.

Weather for tomorrow should be somewhat lighter, so competition will be interesting.

Event Details – Results – Facebook

About the 2017 420 World, Ladies World and U17 World Championships
The 2017 420 World, Ladies World and U17 World Championships, 26 December 2017-3 January 2018, is hosted at Fremantle Sailing Club, Perth, Australia.288 sailors from 18 nations are competing, with 64 boats in the 420 Open fleet, 39 in the 420 Ladies and 41 in the U17.

The 420 Open teams are split into two fleets for a 6 race qualification series and 6 race final series, with a single race discard coming into play after race three. Teams contesting the Ladies and U17 World Championships race a single series of 12 races.

144 teams from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and Turkey are competing.

About the International 420 Class Association
The 420 is an established worldwide performance two-person trapeze and spinnaker racing dinghy which holds status as an International Class and Learn-to-Sail boat.

A performance two-person spinnaker racing dinghy for youth, the 420 has been selected as the youth development class in over 45 nations around the world. The 420 is an important choice to develop sailing and sailors’ skills in strategy, tactics, boat handling, tuning and technique and is very accessible, demanding skills easily obtained by sailors in developing nations.

The 420 Class has trained many of the world’s best sailors and is a proven transition class, whatever your next step in sailing, dinghy or multihull, keelboat or skiff.

Source: Bernie Kaaks / Fremantle Sailing Club