Irish sailors Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove experienced a challenging day at the 49er Europeans in Thessaloniki, Greece. The pair slipped from fifth to 15th place after two races on Friday, 6th June 2025.
Light winds impacted the racing conditions, resulting in only two races being completed. Thirteen of the twenty-five boats got disqualified from the first race of the day over two general recalls and a successful third start, turning the results table around. Dickson and Waddilove were one of the boats disqualified from the opening race for an early start. As a result, they had to count a previous worst score of 20th from the qualification round.
Matt McGovern, Irish Sailing's 49er coach, commented, "A Black flag and a 20th - that's going to hurt them." The day ended early due to an approaching thunderstorm, preventing the third race from being held.
Despite the setbacks, McGovern noted that they are only 20 points off the medals. “If you get one good race, then all of a sudden you're back in the hunt," he said.
The start line proved pivotal within the 49er racing once they got going in the afternoon.
The start sequences began in the best breeze of the week, but a storm cell was forming directly downwind of the racing, which started influencing the wind and pulling it to the left. The race committee kept having to adjust the line, and then teams didn’t have great transits to sight the line. Imperfect conditions added to gold fleet intensity ended in disaster for many when nine boats were disqualified during the second attempt at the start. Then in the third attempt that went forward, another four were called over.
The leaders, Menzies with Lee Rush (NZL), avoided the race seven drama and extended their lead significantly with a flawless day when so many others faltered. “We were so nervous in that first recall, as we thought we might have been over too, but we ended up safe, which made all the difference,” said Menzies.
An illustration of how close 49er gold fleet racing is comes from the example of Umpierre with Diz (URU). The pair got moved all the way down to 12th overall with their race seven disqualification before moving back up to fifth overall by winning the second race of the day.
Moving up to third overall are William Pank with Thommie Grit (GBR). They are a couple of university buddies who take their sailing seriously but do it far away from the elite racing circles most national squads create. They race in, essentially, a puddle within the UK where they have honed their boat handling and skills in the 49er in the manner legends like Paul Goodison (GBR) did. They are passionate team racers, and Grit is relatively new to trapezing, having moved over to skiff sailing from the ILCA less than a year ago.
“Where we train, we have only got enough time to hoist the kite, do one gybe, and then quickly take it down again,” said Pank, clearly relishing racing at the front on the world stage. “All that unstable wind and boat handling practice is serving us well right now.”
Three races are scheduled for Saturday, subject to weather conditions, with more finals on Sunday leading up to the medal race for the top ten boats. Currently, Dickson and Waddilove are 11 points off the top ten.
