After a 24-hour delay to racing, the Irish 49er Olympic skiffs finally went afloat at French Olympic Week today (Tuesday, 25th April 2023), but both were battered by the continuing strong mistral winds at Hyeres.
Robert Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) and Seán Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) scored a 16th in the opening race and took a tenth in the second, but a capsize in the final race of the day left the pair counting a 'Did Not Finish', plus an injured wrist for Dickson into the bargain.
Royal Cork Yacht Club's Séafra Guilfoyle with Johnny Durcan were on track for a top-six result in when they capsized close to the finish in the second race. They managed to right themselves quickly and went on to place 15th. They were scored DNC in the third.
Robert Dickson (left) and Seán Waddilove
The Med’s famous Mistral pushed the sailors to their limits and beyond on day 2. Glorious sunshine and 23-knot+ westerlies building throughout the day and gusting towards 30 welcomed the fleets in the Bay of Hyères.
The Dutch did the double at the World Championships in Nova Scotia last September, winning both the FX and the 49er. And Bart Lambriex & Floris van der Werken matched their female compatriots on day 2 by also finishing the day handily in second place overall after winning the first and last of their three races (and finishing 1, 2, 1) in yellow fleet - one of the three.
Fresh from their victory in Palma at the beginning of April, New Zealand’s Logan Dunning Beck & Oscar Gunn matched the Dutch by winning their last two races in red fleet to finish 2, 1, 1.
Just behind them, France’s Kévin Fischer & Yann Jauvin, were the dominant boat in blue fleet, finishing 2, 6, 1. “It was a tough day today,” Fischer said. “We managed to negotiate this wind and steep and short chop well and have stayed in the frame. We made one small error when the spinnaker halyard came out of the cleat, but we managed to limit the damage by only finishing sixth.”
But for some crews it was a very welcome and rare chance to show off their big wind talent in an international regatta. USA had two crews consistently at the front of their two fleets and Ian Barrows & Hans Henken, (who won the American domestic trials and will represent USA at the Test Event in Marseille)
“Ian and I love these conditions,” Henken said. “We were bummed not to sail yesterday. We train all the time in this in California, in San Francisco, we do a lot in the ocean in Miami. The French are really fast in this stuff and obviously the Kiwis and Australians are good in this too.
“I think it was probably as windy as could be for them to race us, I think they had to race our fleet’s third race because the other two had finished. Before we started the third race the wind gear on our coach boat said it was averaging 23, and then gusting 28. For us, it was about trying to do clean laps and we accomplished that for 75% of the race and then had a few swims trying to get around the last 25%. It was a race of attrition. At some point everyone was doing a bit of swimming.”
Conditions are expected to moderate on Wednesday.
Results are here
