Dun Laoghaire's Saskia Tidey and Scotland's Charlotte Dobson consolidated their top position in the 49er FX with three top-five finishes in today's racing at the Olympic Regatta in Tokyo.

There was sun, plenty of breeze and waves with 14 knots of northerly building to 19kts through the day.

Dobson and Tidey (GBR) may not have won a race in the big waves today, but 4,2,5 scores keeps the British in the lead by five points from the Dutch, who had the best results from the outing.

Double World Champions Annemiek Bekkering and Annette Duetz (NED) notched up two races wins and a sixth, looking very comfortable in the difficult conditions. Two points behind them are the reigning World Champions from Spain, Tamara Echegoyen and Paula Barcelo.

Bekkering admitted sailing the skiff in those waves is constant stress, "You can’t push the boat to 100%, otherwise you capsize, so it’s quite stressful concentrating so hard, but the stress is enjoyable too. It’s part of what makes sailing these boats so fun."

After racing Dobson, 35, from Rhu, Scotland, said: “These boats are just epic to sail in those big waves and when you delete from your brain the fact that it’s the Olympics and these are big waves and capsizes are expensive, they’re just the most phenomenal boats to sail. I think what we did quite well today was just focussing on doing all of our little processes.

“We call Sas the air hostess as we’re going down the massive waves because she’s in charge of the kite control. So it was quite a good day on Tidey Airlines today.

Dun Laoghaire's Saskia Tidey (right) and Scotland's Charlotte Dobson - three top-five finishes in today's racing at the Olympic Regatta in Tokyo

“There were times where it was definitely not boring, but I think we managed to keep doing our basics pretty well. And on a day like that with the big sea state, having three good counters is a really good day so we’re pretty happy.

“We’re feeling good. I think what’s really played out over the last couple of days for us is we’ve put so much work in the previous years to this of being really pernickety with the processes. Sometimes at the time they felt a bit over the top and a bit noisy, but what we’re feeling now is that we are ourselves on the water. We’re sailing the same boat that we’ve sailed for the last four years, we’re the same team, the same processes so it does feel really comfy. We’re leaning and playing on that a little bit at the moment.

“Looking forward to a rest tomorrow and then we’ll be back at it the next day.”

Saskia Tidey, 28, from Sandycove in Dun Laoghaire on Dublin Bay and a member of the Royal Irish Yacht Club, said: “Today was a big day for everyone on the racecourse. It feels really really long and the conditions here are really challenging, so every race you have to regroup, start from scratch and figure out what you’re about to get into. So it’s a good day, but right now we’re pretty knackered so we’ll need a few hours to settle into relaxing.”

Dun Laoghaire Harbour skiff sailor Saskia Tidey of the Royal Irish Yacht Club has resumed her GBR campaign for Tokyo 2021 at Kiel Week in Germany this weekend and is lying third overall with Scottish partner Charlotte Dobson from the Clyde.

The pair who are confirmed as the Team GBR reps in the 49erfx are currently 15 points off the lead held by the home nation’s Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke.

Arising from the week, Lutz and Beucke have won their selection trials and will race in Tokyo. Kieler Woche is the third leg of the German national trials and since they were already leading the trials have mathematically locked up Olympic selection. The German duo are long time campaigners but have yet to attend a games. They won the 2017 European Championship in Kiel, so clearly they are comfortable in the Kiel waters

Results are here

This weekend's RYA Dinghy Show was opened by members of the British Olympic Sailing Team including Dun Laoghaire's Saskia Tidey of the Royal Irish Yacht Club who will be competing in the 2020 Tokyo Games this summer.

Alexandra Palace, London, has transformed into a dinghy sailing paradise and the theme is ‘World of opportunity-see where dinghy sailing can take you’.

Tidey, who sailed for Ireland in Rio but switched to Team GB for Tokyo because of lack of opportunity in Ireland, recently finished second at the 49erFX World Championships with partner Charlotte Dobson from Scotland.

Tidey's fellow Olympian Sarah Ayton commented on the show: “We’re really excited to officially launch the 2020 show - the atmosphere is already fantastic! It always amazes me the range of boats here, all the things you can buy. We’ve also got a whole line up of brilliant speakers so this weekend, come and escape the rain and enjoy a day out here at the Dinghy Show!”

The Dinghy Show in full swing

Visitors of all ages are able to enjoy family-friendly show favourites including the 360° ‘On the Water’ VR experience, sailing simulators and the model boat pool. You’ll also find a brand new line up of expert speakers across three stages

If you haven’t already got your ticket, weekend (£24) tickets are available to buy on the door. The show is open from 10:00 - 18:00 10:00 - 17:00 on Sunday 01 March.

Charlotte Dobson teamed with Dublin Bay's Saskia Tidey (who will sail for GBR in Tokyo) won World Championship races one and two in the FXs in Geelong, Australia today then just bailed out of the top 10 to finish fifth overall.

“We’ve had a pretty long day on the water today. We spend all year trying to maximise time in all different types of conditions and this venue is throwing us all sides of the dice. We’ve had a challenging day, everyone has, but I think we have come out of it pretty well,” Tidey of the Royal Irish Yacht Club said.

British Sailing’s performance director Ian Walker has predicted a five-medal haul for Team GB at this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.

In a recent sports podcast conversation, as reported on Sailweb, the boss of the UK’s Olympic sailing squad would not be drawn on what medals they would take home, nor in which class.

But the former Irish Green Dragon skipper, and RYA racing director, did indicate that the team were capable of greater things provided the conditions were more windy than light.

Irish 49erFX sailor Saskia Tidey is among those who will be in contention with Team GB at this summer’s Olympic Games.

She and her sailing partner Charlotte Dobson were selected last October and head to Enoshima as serious medal contenders.

This follows a string of successes since forming their partnership in 2017 when Tidey switched from Team Ireland due to a lack of opportunity here.

The Royal Irish Yacht Club’s Saskia Tidey and her Team GB sailing partner Charlotte Dobson have launched a crowdfunding campaign to support their efforts to qualify for the 49erFX class in next summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The pair, who finished seventh among a strong field of contender at the 49erFX Europeans last month, say they have reached a “hurdle” in their present fundraising efforts.

“The level of financial backing we have needed to maintain podium positions has now exceeded beyond what our campaign budget is capable of.”

But with additional backing, they say, “we absolutely believe we can complete and deliver the training programme we have planned to bring home a medal”.

Saskia and Charlotte have set a £5,000 of which they have raised nearly a quarter in less than a week.

For more on the pair’s campaign, see their GoFundMe page HERE.

Read the pair’s full appeal below:

We are Olympians Saskia Tidey & Charlotte Dobson. Team mates onboard our 49er FX Olympic class skiff dinghy representing Great Britain on the British Sailing team. We need your help!

After the Rio 2016 Olympic games concluded we left with fire in our bellies and our eyes and hearts set on the goal to medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan.

For three years we have battled on the International World Sailing circuit to bring home medal winning performances for Great Britain. It has been a honour to fly the flag and and a privilege to be under the pressure of striving for greatness.

Unfortunately we have reached a hurdle in our campaign which we are finding increasingly difficult to jump. The level of financial backing we have needed to maintain podium positions has now exceeded beyond what our campaign budget is capable of. With additional funds we absolutely believe we can complete and deliver the training programme we have planned to bring home a medal.

This summer we will represent Great Britain at the 2019 Olympic Test event in Japan. Please follow our journey and donate before August 2019 to help us reach the gold standard program we need to continue to succeed!

With Tokyo 2020 just around the corner we are seeking help and support from anyone would would like to join our journey and help us keep on the podium for Great Britain in 2020!

Sailing is a sport that can be overlooked and misunderstood but it is an exhilarating sport which is accessible to everyone and we would love to entice more viewers to enjoy it too!

Please help us on on our journey!

Follow our story on Instagram @gbr_44fx

Help Spread the word! 

Charlotte & Saskia xox

Olympic medalist Annalise Murphy and crew Katie Tingle continue their learning curve in the 49erFX dinghy where they battled extremely testing conditions on day two of the European Championships in Weymouth.

It was a "steep learning curve" for the pair in their new discipline as they and the other Irish 49er squads faced winds over 20 knots and large seas off Weymouth on the south coast of England but one crew who is on top of her game is Royal Irish Yacht Club's Saskia Tidey of Dun Laoghaire who tops the leaderboard with Scotland's Charlotte Dobson for Team GB.

Conditions were so close to the limit of what can be sailed in that organisers changed the scheduled to allow the women’s 49erFX race to take place inside the harbour. While that provided more shelter and flatter waters, the easterly winds took its toll on Murphy and Tingle’s challenge.

Annalise Murphy and Katie Tingle roll to windward in the "challenging" conditions experienced at a weather mark Photo: Drew Malcolm

The Irish pair placed 27th in one race and retired in the day’s two other races yesterday, having scored a 6th, 15th and 19th place in their first three races of the regatta on Monday. Murphy, from Dublin, and Cork native Tingle have three more qualifying races tomorrow which will determine which division they sail in later this week, in what is their second competitive regatta in the Olympic class.

Tidey Leads 49erFX Fleet

The two halves of the 49erFX qualification series took place today in a 15-18 knots easterly in Portland Harbour, delivering spectacularly fast conditions for the women’s skiff fleet. While Charlotte Dobson and Saskia Tidey have upped their game significantly in lighter conditions, the British duo were back in their favourite breeze - strong and gusty. Scores of 1,1,2 lift them to top of the leaderboard, tied on points with second-placed Brazilians, Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze.

A container ship near the Portland shore on the right-hand side of the course prevented a straightforward tack into the corner, forcing a couple more tacks out of the teams. “We quite liked the container ship there,” said Dobson. “It made it a bit more interesting. The gusts were pretty hard though, you couldn’t see them coming. There’s quite a lot of weight in the wind and being so close to the shore there wasn’t much warning before the next gust hit. So it kept you on your toes, you couldn’t really relax for a moment.”

The Brits’ closest rival on their side of the draw is the young Swedish team who were leading after day one, Vilma Bobeck and Malin Tengstrom, who continue to tear round the track at high speed, scoring 7,4,1 from the day. “We train with them a lot,” said Dobson. “They’re probably a bit faster than us in the breeze but we managed to be a bit more consistent on the race course.”

The other side of the draw saw a three-way battle play out between three 49erFX World Champions past and present. The reigning Olympic Champions, Grael and Kunze, had the best of it with 1,1,3. The Olympic silver medallists from New Zealand, Alex Maloney and Molly Meech, notched up an ever-improving 3,2,1, lifting them to fifth overall, one place behind the other high performer of the day, the reigning World Champions Annemieke Bekkering and Annette Duetz of the Netherlands. The Dutch were still grinning after a fun day on the water that brought them scores of 2,3,2. “We love that stuff,” said Bekkering. “We don’t get to sail in such flat water very often, and the boats were flying today.”

Bekkering and Duetz are definitely enjoying the weather so far in Weymouth, although the breeze is set to drop in the coming days. They’re strong in all conditions, but so far the higher wind - which floated between 15 and 20 knots - is making life harder for their rivals for Dutch Olympic selection. A few weeks ago Odile van Aanholt and Marieke Jongens won the Hempel Sailing World Cup regatta in Genoa, Italy, in very light winds. This gives them a significant advantage going into the second and final part of the Olympic trials here in Weymouth. So far, Bekkering and Duetz are doing a good job of staying in the fight, but that is exactly what the reigning World Champions need to do if they hope to stay in contention for that coveted place at Tokyo 2020.

49erFX Top 5 – Full Results
1            GBR       Charlotte Dobson, Saskia Tidey                 8
2            BRA       Martine Grael, Kahena Kunze                   8
3            SWE       Vilma Bobeck, Malin Tengstrom              10
4            NED       Annemiek Bekkering, Annette Duetz        10
5            NZL        Alex Maloney, Molly Meech                      14

Irish 49erFX pairing Annalise Murphy and Katie Tingle who are seeking a place on the Tokyo 2020 startline are lying 36th in their 57 boat fleet overall after scoring 24, 12 and 19 in the opening three races of the European Championships in Weymouth today.

The teams faced a 'challenging' easterly breeze and big waves off the Dorset coast in the opening rounds and these conditions are quite a contrast for Murphy and Tingle who made a gentle debut to the class just a few weeks ago at their first regatta, a light air Trofeo Princesa Sofia in Mallorca.

Annalise's Rio teammate Saskia Tidey of the Royal Irish Yacht Club, who switched to sail for Team GB with Charlotte Dobson for Tokyo, is off to a flying start and lying fourth overall. 

Full results are here.

Junior World Champions Show Skiff Ladies the Way

Young Swedes, Vilma Bobeck and Malin Tengstrom, who won the Junior World Championship in 2018, today showed how in heavy weather, they are right in line with the World’s best.

“We suspected we could perform like this, as we’d had some good training sessions, but taking two wins and then sailing through the fleet to recover to a third is beyond our expectations,” commented the plucky helm Bobeck.

The duo started well in the first two races, and couldn’t be reeled in, taking wire-to-wire victories in both races. In the final race of the day, they started poorly but moved up throughout the race passing on every leg.

Bobeck, the helm, is a towering figure, almost the tallest sailor in the fleet. Together with the average sized Tengstrom the duo were the only 49erFX female team to compete with the top two male teams at the 2018 Junior Worlds, which was a very windy regatta in Marseille, France. This season they have finished between 8th and 21st through Miami, Vilamoura, Palma, and Genoa, but almost all of the racing this season has been in light winds. Today, they got their time to shine.

Among the ten teams chasing them are the Olympic Champions, three other World Champions and two further European Champions. Holding their leading position won’t be easy, but today was a great way for a young team to make a mark.

As Afloat previously reported here, the Irish Sailing 49er and 49erFX teams will be sailing in next week’s European Championships, one of the highlights of the 2019 Olympic sailing calendar and an important benchmark for Irish teams still seeking Tokyo berths with a little over a year to go to the Olympic Regatta itself.

Next week’s regatta will see more than 400 of the best sailors from all over the world battle on Weymouth and Portland’s world-class waters, home of the London 2012 Olympic sailing competition, in pursuit of the European crown.

The Irish team attending the event is made up of eight sailors: 

• Annalise Murphy (Olympic silver medallist) with Katie Tingle, competing in the 49erFX
• Ryan Seaton (a medal race finalist at the Olympic Games in London 2012 and Rio 2016) and Seafra Guilfoyle
• Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove (winners, U23 49er World Championships, September 2018, and 2018 Afloat Irish Sailors of the Year)
• Tadgh and Sean Donnelly, training partners with the Irish Sailing Performance team

Speaking in advance of the event, Ross Killian, Irish Sailing 49er Coach said “All of the teams have put in massive amounts of preparation to get ready for this event, which simply underlines its importance to them, and how keen they are to succeed. It’s another significant step toward the Olympic Games in Tokyo next year.”

At the venue, Howth's Dickson and Waddilove have chalked up a 15th overall in the RYA Warm Up Regatta to set them up nicely for the main event.

Ian Barker 49erFX Irish Sailing coach said “Annalise and Katie are looking forward to the event and to getting out on the water. There’s a lot to sail for at Weymouth and they’re confident that their training and preparation regimes have them ready and prepared for the challenges ahead.”

The week-long regatta takes place at Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy from May 13 to 19.

All three Irish 49er teams ended up in the silver fleet at the World Cup in Genoa yesterday leaving some head scratching in the Irish camp as to how performances might be improved before the important European championships in Weymouth next month.

The fifth day of competition in Genoa saw a long-awaited 6-9 knot steady western breeze arrive, ensuring that 41 of 42 races were completed.  Conditions during the week were described as tricky with Rory Fitzpatrick, Irish Sailing’s Head Coach explaining “It’s been really tough conditions – one mistake and you’re at the back of the fleet".

Best of the Irish was 38th place Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove next was 48th place, Ryan Seaton and Seafra Guilfoyle. Sean and Tadhg Donnelly were 58th in the 65-boat fleet.

Annalise's 49erFX Debut

Annalise Murphy and Katie Tingle's debut in the silver fleet of the Women’s 49erFX skiff ended with an overall 41st from 49th.

Medal Races

The scene has been set for the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 Medal Races at Hempel World Cup Series Genoa following the conclusion of fleet racing in the Italian city.

Italy’s Carlotta Omari and Matilda Distefano will lead the home nations hopes as they take a narrow advantage into the 49erFX Medal Race. Australian brothers David and Lachy Gilmour have New Zealand’s hottest sailing properties, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, hot on their heels in the 49er.

Full results are here. Check out all our Irish Olympic sailing coverage in the build-up to Tokyo 2020 here

All Medal Races will be live on World Sailing’s YouTube Channel here - https://youtu.be/kyGGiRqiUdw.