Britain tops Nacra 17 Europeans

Weymouth, England (May 19, 2019) – With six boats all within 12 points of the gold medal at the Nacra 17 European Championship, the medal race was always going to be a difficult one to predict and a big battle on the water for all teams involved.

One postponed start meant the nerves and anticipation from all the sailors was rising whilst the wind swung from a steady South Westerly 5-6kts to a very shifty and patchy Northerly 4-6kt breeze. After an hour waiting around on the water, the 10 boat medal race fleet finally got underway in some very light and difficult conditions.

Staying true to form in the light winds over the last few days, it was Ben Saxton and Nikki Boniface (GBR) who dominated the race from start to finish, coming off the middle of the line and managing to use their boat speed to control most of the fleet around them – everyone seemed keen on the left hand side of the track.

Our leaders going into the day, Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti (ITA), seemed to falter in their start, struggling to get off the line and being very heavily punished for a slow tack out in these light airs. Never managing to recover and coming in 9th meant it was up to the rest of the medal contenders to pounce – and pounce they did.

John Gimson/Anna Burnett (GBR) headed into the day in 3rd spot and with a 3rd place in the medal race pulled up into silver medal position over all. A fantastic result for this pair who have made significant strides this winter training down in South America with the current Olympic Champions Santi Lange/Cecilia Carranza (ARG).

The battle for bronze was a hard fought fight from Denmark’s Lin Cenholt and CP Lubeck battling past a couple of boats around the race course to take 4th in the race and sneak just in front of Tita/Banti for 3rd place over all.

The Europeans offered the full menu, with teams toughing it out through every type of wind condition from big wind and waves at the start of the week, to much lighter, flatter conditions towards the end.

The Nacra 17 Europeans were on May 13 to 19 off Weymouth, England.

Final Results (Top 5 of 55; 18 races, 2 discards)
1. GBR Ben Saxton, Nicola Boniface 61
2. GBR John Gimson, Anna Burnett 67
3. DEN Lin Cenholt, CP Lubeck 71
4. ITA Ruggero Tita, Caterina Banti 73
5. ARG Mateo Majdalani, Eugenia Bosco 76

Event details – Results – Facebook

North American Results:
Top ten or top position
24th Sarah Newberry/ David Liebenberg (USA)

Competing from North America:
Canada: Allie Surrette/ Max Flinn
USA: Sarah Newberry/ David Liebenberg, Riley Gibbs/ Anna Weis, Ravi Parent/ Caroline Atwood, Nicholas Martin/ Romy Mackenbrock

Source: Port Tack Racing