Yachting-Live

Rough First Day At Hyeres

The 40th edition of the SOF in Hyeres started with gruelling conditions which tested the sailor’s fitness and equipment! The Easterly wind reinforced until mid-afternoon up to 25 knots with deep short waves.

Strong winds and choppy waves provided hard sailing conditions for the 49ers sailors split in two fleets. Danish Olympic representatives Jonas Warrer and Martin Kirketerp have mastered the tough conditions to lead the Yellow 49er group after consistently racing to fourth and fifth positions. World #3 team Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes damaged their boat after capsizing. The Brits who had won the race 1 were among 7 boats who failed to finish the second race.

Only seven boats managed to finish the sole race in the 49er Blue Group won by Marcin Czajkowski and Krysztof Kierkowski (POL). This result will not be included in the overall classification until both groups sail an even number of races.

The Finns enjoyed the gruelling conditions with wind reaching 27 knots in their racing area. Pieter–Jan Postma (NED) proved again he likes the breeze. The Dutch who had won the two final fleet races last year in similar conditions won the first race with a huge lead and was among the leading group in the second when a starboard incident forced him to do a 720. Postma recovered from 35th to seventh to place in fourth overall.

Faithful to their fame, Dutch teams excelled in the breeze in the Tornado and 470 women fleets. Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis took the first bullet in the Tornado opening race and placed 5th in the second.

Triple World champions, Marcelien de Koning and Lobke Berkhout (NED) placed twice second to lead the 470 women fleet.

The RS:X favourites didn’t perform in the breeze, a sign they could have already set their mind and preparations on China light air.

The conditions for the Paralympics classes were on the upper limit. One of the German crew went overboard during the race but was quickly rescued by French coach. — Corinne McKenzie

Top three by class:

Finn
1. Christopher Cook, CAN, 5 points
2. Jonas Hogh Christ, DEN, 7
3. Dan Slater, NZL, 7 points

Laser Standard
1. Deniss Karpak, EST, 2
2. Nick Thompson, GBR, 4
3. Michael Leigh, CAN, 5

RS:X Men
1. Toni Wilhelm, GER, 3
2. Casper Bouman, NED, 3
3. Julien Bontemps, FRA, 4

RS:X Women
1. Zofia Klepacka, POL, 2
2. Blanca Mari Manchon, ESP, 8
3. Flavia Tartaglini, ITA, 12

Sonar
1. John Robertson, GBR, 1
2. Bruno Jourdren, ENV, 2
3. Jostein Stordahl, NOR, 3

Tornado
1. Mitch Booth / Pim Nieuwenhuis , NED, 6
2. Carolijn Brouwer / Sebastien Godefroid , BEL, 6
3. Fernando Echavarri / Anton Paz , ESP, 6

Yngling
1. Ulrike Schu Schuemann, GER, 3
2. Sarah Ayton, GBR, 4
3. Silja Sofia Lehtinen, FIN, 6

2.4
1. Damien Seguin, FRA, 1
2. Thierry Schmitter, NED, 2
3. Helena Lucas, GBR, 3

470 Men
1. Alvaro Marinho / Miguel Nunes, POR, 3
2. Nick Rogers / Joe Glanfield, GBR, 3
3. Sven Coster / Kalle Coster, NED, 4

470 Women
1. Marcelien de Koning / Lobke Berkhout, NED, 4
2. Ingrid Petitjean / Nadege Douroux, FRA, 6
3. Yineng Huang / Yinjuan Shen, CHN, 11

Laser Radial
1. Evi Van Acker, BEL, 4
2. Lijia Xu, CHN, 7
3. Nathalie Brugger, 8

49er . No overall results, the groups have sailed a different number of races.

sof.ffvoile.net

Popularity: 8% [?]

Listen to this podcast

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 9:18 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.