The Danish 49er sailors, Allan Norregaard and Anders Thomsen have a 26 point lead going into the final stage of the 49er European Championships on Lake Garda. The top youth team position changed with James Peter and Ed Fitzgerald of GBR hitting their stride. Despite a 24th in the first race, they finished strong with a 7-4 to move them ahead of previous youth world championship leaders.
Norregaard and Thomsen continued their winning ways and their trapezing technique, vaulting them to the lead while the fleet jostled for the positions. Close behind Marcin Czajkowski and Martin Rymer (POL) who have only been sailing together 20 days, turned it on and sailed themselves into 2nd overall.
Rymer, his first time in a 49er said, “Every race was better for us. We had a good settings on our mast so we had a lot of power and we made good decisions on tactics.” Pavle Kostov (CRO) explained their day on the water; “We had a 6-1-10. The last race we were in 4th and then on the downwind leg of the last race we lost our tiller extension – we actually lost it in the water and had to change before each tack.”
Irish Olympian Ryan Seaton talked about their day: “The wind was blowing off the shore and we started on port on all three races, as yesterday we had a black flag and couldn’t really afford to have another and we were being a bit cautious. It seemed to pay off – the right hand side of the upwinds were looking pretty good – you get into the shore and we had good boat speed as well. We got across everyone except the Danish guys.” The Irish sit in 5th overall going into the finals.
Saturday begins the Theatre Style racing with a knockout format. The 22-29 Gold fleet teams will race Round 1 followed by 15-22; then 8-15 in round 3 and the top 8 in round 4.
49er - Leaders European Championship after 7 Gold races
1 DEN 3 A. Norregaard / A. Thomsen 4 7 7 1 3 4 2 21 pts
2 POL 117 M. Czajkowski / M. Rymer 17 13 12 4 5 10 3 47 pts
3 ESP 1283 C. Paz /A. Paz Blanco 13 6 8 5 7 17 8 47 pts
4 CRO 113 P. Kostov / P. Cupac 21 11 14 7 6 1 10 49 pts
5 IRL 300 R. Seaton / M. McGovern 25 9 2 OCS 2 2 11 51 pts
6 FRA 114 M. Frei / Y. Rocherieux 18 3 5 16 9 3 15 51 pts
7 FRA 8 J. d'Ortoli / N. Delpech 1 1 20 12 4 14 21 52 pts
8 GBR 1295 J. Peters / E. Fitz Gerald * 10 5 OCS 2 24 7 4 52 pts
9 GER 216 J. H. Erichsen / M. Lutz * 14 2 4 18 10 22 5 53 pts
10 POL 052 T. Januszewski / J. Nowak 2 4 3 RDG 17 21 17 53.67 pts
* = Qualify youth world Championship
G New
15 September 2012 8:51