A capsize in the first race of the 49er World Championships in Canada spoiled an otherwise excellent start for Dubliners Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove when strong winds swept through the course in St. Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia.
Ireland's two boats had made good starts to the first race in the qualification round of the Blue fleet.
Conditions for the opening race kicked up to 27 knots with waves of 1.5 metres for the 56-boats competing.
Robert Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) with Sean Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) rounded the first mark in second place.
Team-mates Seafra Guilfoyle with Johnny Durcan (Royal Cork YC) were also well placed and close behind in fifth place just as the wind increased in strength.
With gusts of 27 knots, it was the top end of the wind range for racing 49ers Photo: Sailing Energy
Dickson and Waddilove hoisted their spinnaker but 'pitch-poled' and capsize when they buried the bow of their boat into a wave.
Despite many capsizes in the fleet, Guilfoyle and Durcan held their nerve for the two rounds of the course until their final leg to the finishing line, when they too capsized in the short, steep waves only metres from the finish.
The pair did well to recover their boat and sail backwards across the finishing line just as the race committee signalled an end to racing for the day.
The Cork crew placed 16th while the Dublin duo were one place behind.
A prophetic sign at the 49er World Championships in Nova Scotia that competitors needed to heed on the opening day of the event
"I've been getting beaten-up all last winter so managed to escape injury today," commented Durcan. "It was pretty full-on and fun but definitely at the upper limit of what 49ers can sail in."
The 49er sailors in this world championships are no strangers to big breeze and solid waves, but only one race was sailed on this first day as the fleet sometimes struggled through the choppy and gusty downwind legs.
“We made it through all of our bear aways, it was the gybes that got us,” said Japanese crew Tim Morishima. He explained that the steep chop made it nearly impossible to avoid stuffing the bow in the middle of a turn. In one of the 49er fleets, all but about eight boats capsized in the single race of the day.
Erwan Fischer & Clement Pequin of France were first in Blue fleet and British sailors Chris Taylor & Rhos Hawes won the Yellow fleet race.
With the last two Olympic Champions absent from this quadrennium, that leaves double bronze medalists Erik Heil & Thomas Ploessel of Germany as one of the teams to watch this week along with current world champs Bart Lambriex & Florian van der Werken of the Netherlands. Both teams finished outside the top ten today.
Conditions were expected to ease overnight, and extra races are planned for Thursday to catch up the schedule.
Results here
