A dramatic “man overboard” incident overshadowed the final day of fleet racing at the 49er World Championships in Quiberon, France, where Ireland’s Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove narrowly missed out on qualification for the medal-deciding Final Series.
Dutch four-time world title hopefuls Bart Lambriex and Floris van de Werken saw their championship hopes suffer a major blow when Lambriex accidentally detached from his trapeze wire and fell overboard while leading a race.
The resulting capsize dropped the Dutch crew back in the standings on another unpredictable day on the Bay of Quiberon.
Against that backdrop, Dickson and Waddilove completed a strong recovery through the week to finish 14th overall in Gold Fleet, just eight points outside the top ten needed to reach Sunday’s medal series.
The North Dublin duo entered the final day with an outside chance of qualification after climbing steadily up the leaderboard following a difficult opening day earlier in the regatta.
Lighter winds again disrupted racing on Saturday, with several fleets delayed ashore waiting for breeze to fill in across the racecourse.
When racing got underway, the Irish Olympic pairing delivered consistent performances with results of 10th and 12th before closing strongly with a fifth-place finish in the final race.
“Overall we’re quite happy with our performance,” Dickson said afterwards.
“Unfortunately the opening day left us on the back foot, but we improved steadily throughout the week, gaining places each day and finishing within touching distance of the medal series.”
The pair will now return home briefly before travelling to Germany for Kieler Woche ahead of the European Championships later this summer.
At the front of the 49er fleet, New Zealand’s Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush retained the overall lead heading into Sunday’s new two-race finals format, ahead of Australia’s Harry Price and Max Paul.
Germany’s Jakob Meggendorfer and Andreas Spranger also remain in contention, while the Dutch crew slipped 14 points behind after their costly capsize.
49er FX
Elsewhere, Ireland’s Erin McIlwaine and Ellen Barbour completed an encouraging senior world championship debut in the 49erFX fleet.
The young Irish pairing finished 12th overall in Silver Fleet after ending the regatta with scores of 10th, 11th and a strong third place.
Coach Matt McGovern praised the crew’s resilience across a demanding week of racing in a wide range of conditions.
“The composure and ingenuity Erin and Ellen have shown throughout is a huge positive for their future sailing careers,” McGovern said.
“Their resilience and handling of the huge range of conditions we’ve experienced here will certainly stand to them as we head on to Kiel next.”
AS Aflaot reported earlier, attention now turns to Ireland’s ILCA squad, who begin their European Championship campaign in Croatia tomorrow with Olympians Eve McMahon and Finn Lynch leading the Irish team.
