Month: September 2014

Four New Countries Qualified for a RS:X Youth Scholarship!

Posted on by Andrus Poksi

The Executive Committee of the RS:X Class decided on its meeting in Santander on 11th of September to support the new RS:X countries and opened the Youth Scholarship for those countries who’s RS:X sailor will participate on the 2014 RS:X Youth World Championships for the first time with the history since 2012.

The Youth Scholarship covers the 50% of the cost of the charter equipment at the 2014 RS:X Youth Worlds with maximum of five sets total and one set per country.
The deadline for the applications was 25th September 2014.
Five applications received within the deadline and four countries qualified:

Peru
Puerto Rico
Estonia
Aruba

Congratulations!
See you in Clearwater at the 2014 RS:X Youth World Championships (18th -25th October 2014).

Fair Winds,
RS:X Class Executive Committee

2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship Afterword

Posted on by Andrus Poksi

The greatest and most expected sailing event of two recent years has successfully finished in beautiful Spanish Santander.

The best sailing teams from all over the world were representing their countries, aiming for Olympic qualification and for the medals.

With extremely difficult racing conditions not all scheduled races were completed, 12 out of 13 scheduled are done in RSX Men and RSX Women.

In the RSX Men, 98 teams from 42 nations were competing and 62 teams from 30 nations are competing in the RSX Women, for a total of 44 different nations for all six continents. Its one of the biggest and impressive numbers among Olympic classes.

For the first time ever Africa was represented in the RSX Women by Algerian Katia Belabbas - “Its my first international event after only 8 month of training on RSX. I am happy to be here and plan to prepare for the next racing season. I like light winds and scared of the strong winds so far, but will gonna work on it!” Same continent and new for RSX Men country was represented by Neel Vora from Kenia (located on the western coast of Africa next to the dangerous Somalia) and Waleed Al-Kindi from Oman. Unfortunately such countries like Chili, Peru and Singapore didn’t repeat their last year participation.

In general most of the sailors are time-and-regattas-tested, some of them are extremely experienced like 6-times Olympian Joao Rodrigues from Portugal. Joao is still recovering from his last year back injury so his usual performance is not there yet. The bunch of new windsurfers came from USA, Turkey, Belarus, France and Great Britain.

Extremely light wind Qualification Series was replaced by strongest breeze for the Finals and Medal race. That brought some new and unusual faces on the top of results during Qualifications, like Demita Vega da Lille from Mexico, Patricia Freitas from Brasil and Malgorzata Bialecka from Poland in RSX Women, as well as Mattia Camboni form Italy, Pierre le Coq from France and Kiran Badloe from Netherlands in RSX Men. Unfortunately some experienced sailors and strong wind specialists couldn’t cope with difficult Santander conditions and therefore didn’t qualify to Gold fleets: Zachary Plavsic from Canada, Dmitriy Polishchuk from Russia, Aron Gadorfalvi from Hungary in RSX Men and Maja Dziarnowska from Poland, Jiali Sun from China, Helene Noesmoen from France in RSX Women.

The finals delivered really intensive strong wind racing with only top performance windsurfers to get to the Top10 in Men and Woman. Seven out of ten RSX Men have completed 2013 RSX Worlds Medal Race in Brasil and only three girls from 2013 Medal race got into Top10 this year.

Alongside with such legends of RSX Men as : Nick Dempsey -“Dempo” (Great Britain), Przemyslaw Miarczynsky-“Pont” (Poland), Julien Bontemps (France), Piotr Myszka - “Myshek” (Poland), Dorian Van Rijsselberge (Netherlands), Byron Kokkalanis (Greece), Ricardo Santos - “Bimba” (Brasil), Jon-Paul Tobin - “JP” (New Zealand) there comes a new kids on the block who raised up and settled in Top20 during last season or two: of course the biggest surprise of this year and bronze medalist in Santander - Thomas Goyard from France (New Caledonia). Following him: Kiran Badloe (Netherlands), Louis Giard and Pieree le Coq (France), Pawel Tarnowski (Poland), Sebastian Fleischer (Denmark).

As for RSX Women only two “new names” climbed into Top10 - Isobel Hamilton- “Izzi” (Great Britain) and Lilian De Geus (Netherlands) since 2013 RSX Worlds. Also its impossible to ignore the results of this year ISAF Youth Champion - Stefania Elfutina (Russia), as she had few very strong races in Santander to finish in top20 overall.

Otherwise rest of the top20 packed with experienced and famous sailors like: Charline Picon (France), Marina Alabau (Spain), Zofia Nocetti-Klepacka - “Zoha” (Poland), Bryony Shaw (Great Britain), Maayan Davidovich (Israel), Flavia Tartaglini (Italy), Blanca Manchon (Spain), Eugenie Ricard (France). Recent motherhood didnt affect Tuuli Petaja-Siren’s performance and she finished 15th, not to mention Marina and Zofia who pulled a medal and 7th overall respectively.

The regatta ended up with strong wind and wonderful to watch medal races to produce a:

Top3 RSX Men

  1. Julien Bontemps (France)
  2. Przemyslaw Miarczynski (Poland)
  3. Thomas Goyard (France)

 

Top3 RSX Women

  1. Charline Picon (France)
  2. Marina Alabau (Spain)
  3. Maayan Davidovich (Israel)

18 countries qualified for the Olympic Games 2016 in RSX Men:

France, Poland, Greece, Great Britain, Netherlands, Israel, Germany, Spain, New Zealand, China, Cyprus, Denmark, Argentina, Lithuania, Italy, Russia*, Japan, Norway

*Subject to IOC Confirmation

13 nations qualified for Olympic Games 2016 in RSX Girls:

France, Israel, Spain, Great Britain, China, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Finland, Russia, New Zealand, Estonia, Mexico

 

Majority of windsurfers went on a vacation straight away after the Championship, to have a proper rest, family time and fun before hitting the next season’s goals. The closer to the Games the higher level and the tougher battle.

We wish all the sailors good training time, fair winds and beautiful sailing!

Website: http://www.santander2014.com/

ISAF Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/user/isafchannel

Photo Credit - Vincenzo BAGLIONE / www.rsxclass.org, Friedrich WILHELM

Results can be found here: http://www.sailing.org/events/isafworlds/results-santander2014.php

Editor: Olga Maslivets

Picon face with medal

IMG_6497

Maayan face

IMG_5787

POnt face

IMG_5831

Golden Day For French RS:X Racers

Posted on by Andrus Poksi

ISAF Sailing World Championship

There was a double French gold in the RS:X fleets at the Santander 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships as Julien Bontemps claimed the men’s title and Charline Picon picked up the women’s.

Picon had sealed Women’s RS:X gold overnight whilst Bontemps had a comfortable lead in the men’s and needed a solid race to seal the deal.

With tough sailing conditions on the Duna Course that saw winds gust up to 25 knots there was plenty of shuffles in the pack as the action played out in front of a capacity crowd and a worldwide TV audience.

Przemyslaw Miarczynski (POL) took silver and Thomas Goyard (FRA) took bronze in the men’s fleet. The home crowd had something to cheer about in the women’s division as Spain’s Marina Alabau sealed silver ahead of Maayan Davidovich (ISR).

Men’s RS:X

It was a difficult start with the fleet split up into two groups with half lining up on starboard and the others crossing behind on port.

With tensions high and hearts pumping, the individual recall flag prompted medal contender Piotr Myszka (POL) to come back and restart but it was clear that others were also over the line at the start as the flag remained on the race committee boat.

Greece’s Byron Kokkalanis (GRE) rounded the windward mark first, followed by Louis Giard (FRA) and Le Coq (FRA) but the real battle was playing out behind the trio as all three were scored OCS.

With the race leaders out of contention, overnight leader Julien Bontemps (FRA) looking increasingly assured of the gold medal. With the pack bunched up together, the left hand side of the course was the place to go upwind and downwind. With choppy waves rebounding back off the Dune, unpredictability at the bottom gate caused Kokkalanis, Dorian van Rijsselberge (NED) and Kiran Badloe (NED) to lose control and drop their sails in the water to oos and aahs from the crowd.

On the final lap Thomas Goyard (FRA) showed impressive speed, climbing through the fleet to take the bullet and with it the bronze medal. An outstanding achievement for the young Frenchman whose best achievement in advance of Santander was a sixth at the recent RS:X European Championship in Cesme, Turkey. After racing he was super happy and couldn’t believe he won a medal.

Bontemps finished behind his compatriot and sealed his second RS:X world title and the celebrations commenced.

Miarczynski sailed conservatively throughout the race to protect his podium position. He came through in third to pick up silver and his fourth RS:X world championship medal.

Badloe, Dempsey and Van Rijsselberge finished fourth to sixth respectively, all of them seemed to be quite heavy going and struggling without their common flying speed.

Myszka walked away frustrated after he missed out on bronze following a pre-race equipment inspection penalty of two points. He ended up tied on 60 points with Goyard and lost out on bronze after he finished behind the young Frenchman in the Medal Race.

Top10 RSX Men Results

Pos Nation Sail Number Crew Race Points
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total Net
1 FRA FRA 6
Julien Bontemps
 4 3 5 (7) 3 3 1 1 4 2 4 4 41.00 34.00
2 POL POL 126
Przemyslaw Miarczynski
 2 7 (8) 2 6 2 5 4 7 5 7 8
DPI		 63.00 55.00
3 FRA FRA 3
Thomas Goyard
 19 (30) 3 3 2 5 2 2 9 3 10 2 90.00 60.00
4 POL POL 82
Piotr Myszka
 4 2 10 2 1 7 4 6 2 6 (15) 16
DPI		 75.00 60.00
5 GBR GBR 1
Nick Dempsey
 5 6 1 4 3 11 (20) 19 13 4 2 10 98.00 78.00
6 GRE GRE 8
Byron Kokkalanis
 6 4 1 5 12
DPI		 8 (15) 3 5 1 13 22
OCS		 95.00 80.00
7 NED NED 8
Dorian Van Rijsselberge
 3 8 7 3 4 14 6 8 15 (19) 11 12 110.00 91.00
8 NED NED 9
Kiran Badloe
 2 5 10 17 7 9 9 11 8 (31) 14 8 131.00 100.00
9 FRA FRA 1
Louis Giard
 1 3 11 8 8 6 10 12 11 9 (27) 22
OCS		 128.00 101.00
10 FRA FRA 77
Pierre le Coq
 1 1 (50)
DSQ		 10 1 15 21 13 6 14 1 22
OCS		 155.00 105.00

Women’s RS:X

The Women’s RS:X started after the Men’s fleet in a comfortable but puffy 15-18 knots. The start was slightly delayed due to the big ship leaving the harbour.

There was a surprise at the start as all the girls started on starboard with a brilliant one for Flavia Tartaglini (ITA), Bryony Shaw (GBR) and Izzi Hamilton (GBR) . Charline Picon (FRA) had the medal in her pocket so didn’t take any risks and started a seconds after the starting gun. Despite being a late starter Picon’s incredible speed and very smart sailing through the shifts saw her win the Medal Race.

Tartaglini had quite comfortable lead over Wu but a few late tacks dropped her to fifth at the finish and sixth overall. Santander 2014 didn’t come easy for Tartaglini who looks forward to a good rest and proper winter training.

Wu kept her second till the finish and jumped to fourth overall. Wu, who finished second at ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres this year, is aiming for a medal at the 2014 Worlds as she is pretty happy with her current speed.

The fight for silver between Maayan Davidovich (ISR) and Marina Alabau (ESP) played out to the finish with Alabau pipping the Israeli to take silver. The home nation sailor had an extremely good second half of the event and feels she is on the right track to reach the heights of Picon who has set very high standards.

Davidovich who has bronze from the 2013 RS:X Worlds in Brasil felt quite comfortable and relaxed during the event and is happy with her sailing and is looking forward to improving the colour of her medal next time out.

2008 Olympic bronze medal Britain’s Bryony Shaw ended up fifth overal not being completely satisfied with her racing as aimed for a medal, but positive looking into using Santander’s valuable experience towards Rio-2016. Bryony’s team mate Izzy Hamilton Youth World Champion 2009 finished 9th overall having lost some advantage when crashed at the top mark in the Medal race.

Zofia Nocetti-Klepacka had a solid Medal race in her usial style, despite poor start to finish third and to climb from tens to seventh overall .

Eugenie Ricard from France and Lilian De Geus from Netherlands ended up eight and ten overall. Both girls had a good consistent season racing and expected to be higher in the results. They still pretty happy with their speed and have steady intention to improve their position over the next racing season.

Top10 RSX Women Results

Pos Nation Sail Number Crew Race Points
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total Net
1 FRA FRA 4
Charline Picon
 1 1 4 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 (9) 2 36.00 27.00
2 ESP ESP 5
Marina Alabau
 5 (16) 13 6 6 2 10 8 2 1 2 12 83.00 67.00
3 ISR ISR 10
Maayan Davidovich
 4 10 6 8 (16) 5 4 2 1 8 5 14 83.00 67.00
4 CHN CHN 5
Jiahui Wu
 3 15 (16) 1 7 6 11 5 11 5 3 4 87.00 71.00
5 GBR GBR 9
Bryony Shaw
 5 11 1 5 2 9 (23) 10 6 9 7 10 98.00 75.00
6 ITA ITA 46
Flavia Tartaglini
 2 (17) 14 9 11 16 1 4 8 2 4 9
DPI		 97.00 80.00
7 POL POL 8
Zofia Noceti-Klepacka
 (16) 3 3 10 9 1 8 1 12 16 16 6 101.00 85.00
8 FRA FRA 22
Eugénie Ricard
 9 1 5 6 8 4 6 11 7 (13) 12 20 102.00 89.00
9 GBR GBR 30
Isobel Hamilton
 6 2 7 (16) 8 13 7 9 4 12 6 16 106.00 90.00
10 NED NED 171
Lilian De Geus
 2 10 5 10 5 10 5 (13) 9 6 10 18 103.00 90.00

All Top10 RSX Men and Top10 RSX Women have received a personal invitations for a first in a history Sailing World Cup Grand Final in Abu Dhabi (November, 2014).

RSX Class congratulates the Champions and thanks all participants for an interesting racing, beautiful show and friendly atmosphere on the boat park!

ISAF Sailing World Championship website: http://www.santander2014.com/

ISAF Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/user/isafchannel

Photo Credit - Vincenzo BAGLIONE / www.rsxclass.org, Friedrich WILHELM

RESULTS: http://www.sailing.org/events/isafworlds/results-santander2014.php

Please note that the first version of this article contained innacurate information concerning DPI for Polish Sailors prior to Medal Race. My sincere apologies to Byron Kokkalanis who had nothing to do with the Measurer’s protest. Editor: Olga Maslivets

Picon Grabs Gold Ahead Of The Medal Race

Posted on by Andrus Poksi

Santander 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship

Olympic qualification completed for RSX Men and Women in Santander

Men’s RS:X

Three races were scheduled today for RS:X class on one of the furthest courses out, Telefonica, but they were sailed back to back extremely fast in the Men’s and Women’s Gold fleet.

A tricky south to south westerly breeze with big waves and strong current did not change the top RS:X Men, but made some adjustments to the top ten.

2012 RS:X World Champion and 2008 Olympic Bronze medallist Julien Bontemps (FRA) had another brilliant day (4,1,4) to have almost unbeatable 15-points lead over second place Piotr Myszka (POL). He plans to check out the Duna course before the Medal Race and then rely on his good and experienced sailing brain and technique.

Myszka scored two good ones (2,6) and discarded a 15th to have a three point advantage over his team mate and London-2012 Bronze medallist Przemyslaw Miarczynski, who’s kept consistent to protect his third position finishing 7,5,7.

France’s Thomas Goyard (9,2,10) and Byron Kokkalanis from Greece (5,3,13) both had good solid racing up until the last race and sit fourth and fifth overall. Those two have a chance to get to the podium if they sail a perfect Medal Race or the Polish lose their grip.

The last five men in the top ten unfortunately cannot deliver a medal for themselves, but can definitely affect the podium picture.

2013 RSX World Champion Britain’s Nick Dempsey hasn’t performed in his usual style at this event, six overall is obviously not his desirable place but two great last races (4,2) are a cool comfort for him.

A frustrating eighth overall for the London 2012 Olympic Gold medallist Dorian Van Rijsselberge could be possibly explained by a romantic mood after his recent marriage with beautiful Sasha Plavsic.

It’s been a pretty impressive performance for the French Team who have four Men’s RS:X sailors in the Medal Race.

Extremely strong winds in the final series has produced the

first 18 countries qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio 2016 in RSX Men:

France , Poland, Greece, Great Britain, Netherlands, Israel, Germany, Spain,

New Zealand, China, Cyprus, Denmark, Argentina, Lithuania, Italy, Russia*, Japan, Norway

*Subject to IOC Confirmation

Women’s RS:X

Vive la France is that can be said about the amazing performance from Charline Picon who has already won gold in the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships. She still needs to sail a Medal Race though, but it won’t affect her gold medal.

In her after race interview to the RSX Class Charline has opened her secret of winning - unsurprisingly its a HARDWORK together with properly set program and smart nutrition.

Big respect and congratulations to Cedric Leroy - Charline’s and Eugenie’s coach!

It was a catastrophic day for Polish Zofia Klepacka who went from second overnight to tenth overall after extremely poor racing (12,16,17) on Telefonica course and is therefore out of the medal hunt.

Two experienced windsurfers Maayan Davidovich (ISR) and home sailor Marina Alabau have climbed little by little throughout the regatta and are into second and third with two points separating them.

Britain’s Bryony Shaw is chasing the leaders but with ten points to climb it’s going to be a tough task for her. Still the trickiest Duna Medal Race course can make a significant change in the expectations of the audience.

Chinese Jiahui Wu is fifth overall and is followed by Flavia Tartaglini (Italy), Lilian De Geus from Netherlands and Britain’s Isobel Hamilton with their final positions to be decided on the Medal Race outcome.

Two brilliant races (4,1) were not enough to help Spain’s Blanca Manchon jump into the Medal Race as she missed out by a tiny three points .

Top 13 nations qualified for Olympic Games in Rio 2016 in RSX Girls:

France, Israel, Spain, Great Britain, China, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Finland, Russia, New Zealand, Estonia, Mexico

 

Website: http://www.santander2014.com/

ISAF Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/user/isafchannel

Photo Credit - Vincenzo BAGLIONE / www.rsxclass.org, Friedrich WILHELM

Results can be found here: http://www.sailing.org/events/isafworlds/results-santander2014.php

Top10 RSX Men Results:

Pos Nation Sail Number Crew Race Points
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Total Net
1 FRA FRA 6
Julien Bontemps
 4 3 5 (7) 3 3 1 1 4 1 4 36.00 29.00
2 POL POL 82
Piotr Myszka
 4 2 10 2 1 7 4 6 2 6 (15) 59.00 44.00
3 POL POL 126
Przemyslaw Miarczynski
 2 7 (8) 2 6 2 5 4 7 5 7 55.00 47.00
4 FRA FRA 3
Thomas Goyard
 19 (30) 3 3 2 5 2 2 9 2 10 87.00 57.00
5 GRE GRE 8
Byron Kokkalanis
 6 4 1 5 12
DPI		 8 (15) 3 5 3 13 75.00 60.00
6 GBR GBR 1
Nick Dempsey
 5 6 1 4 3 11 (20) 19 13 4 2 88.00 68.00
7 FRA FRA 1
Louis Giard
 1 3 11 8 8 6 10 12 11 9 (27) 106.00 79.00
8 NED NED 8
Dorian Van Rijsselberge
 3 8 7 3 4 14 6 8 15 (19) 11 98.00 79.00
9 FRA FRA 77
Pierre le Coq
 1 1 (50)
DSQ		 10 1 15 21 13 6 14 1 133.00 83.00
10 NED NED 9
Kiran Badloe
 2 5 10 17 7 9 9 11 8 (31) 14 123.00 92.00

Top10 RSX Girls results:

Pos Nation Sail Number Crew Race Points
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Total Net
1 FRA FRA 4
Charline Picon
 1 1 4 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 (9) 34.00 25.00
2 ISR ISR 10
Maayan Davidovich
 4 10 6 8 (16) 5 4 2 1 8 5 69.00 53.00
3 ESP ESP 5
Marina Alabau
 5 (16) 13 6 6 2 10 8 2 1 2 71.00 55.00
4 GBR GBR 9
Bryony Shaw
 5 11 1 5 2 9 (23) 10 6 9 7 88.00 65.00
5 CHN CHN 5
Jiahui Wu
 3 15 (16) 1 7 6 11 5 11 5 3 83.00 67.00
6 FRA FRA 22
Eugénie Ricard
 9 1 5 6 8 4 6 11 7 (13) 12 82.00 69.00
7 ITA ITA 46
Flavia Tartaglini
 2 (17) 14 9 11 16 1 4 8 2 4 88.00 71.00
8 NED NED 171
Lilian De Geus
 2 10 5 10 5 10 5 (13) 9 6 10 85.00 72.00
9 GBR GBR 30
Isobel Hamilton
 6 2 7 (16) 8 13 7 9 4 12 6 90.00 74.00
10 POL POL 8
Zofia Noceti-Klepacka
 16 3 3 10 9 1 8 1 12 16 (17) 96.00 79.00

P.S. Pretty interesting law could be seen among leaders especially in men:

All top three men are the fathers of two: Julien has two sons (4,5 years old and 5months old), Piotr has a son (5yo) and a daughter (2yo) and Przemyslaw’s kids are 5 and 3 years old. Nick Dempsey is a father of two sons as well.

Two mothers in the top10 RSX Girls are: Marina Alabau with one year old daughter and absolute leader children wise - Zofia Klepacka –mother of two (5year old son and under one year old daughter)!

We can’t pass impressive performance of 2012 London Silver Medalist Tuuli Petaja-Siren (15th overall) who’s racing and still breastfeeding her 8 months old daughter!

So to those who wants to be on the top of RSX rankings – you know what to do now:-).

 

 

The long-awaited champagne conditions for RSX finals in Santander

Posted on by Andrus Poksi

2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship – RS:X M/W

A strong offshore wind that established through the night was waiting for the participants at the race area Freixenet in front of the famous Sardinero beach.

As always, a change of the wind causes changes in the results. The stronger the change – the more dramatic reshuffle we see. That was exactly the case for today!

Stable strong wind across the course allowed sailors for the fulltime planing. But the poor-to-killing-strong wind at the top mark which was set in the pretty unfair area under the cliffs, led to some very unpredictable changes in the results.

That was evidently seen when the guys were switching from full planing to a full stop within 50 metres to the top mark. “The more overlay - the better you go” scenario has spoiled a proper sailing impression, but the top sailors are on top anyway.

The second race was the toughest wind wise for girls with extreme wind gusts on the downwind and leaders capsized multiple times during the race.

RSX Girls

Charline Picon (FRA) has set high standards in the Women’s RS:X fleet, showing extreme consistency with three third place finishes today regardless of the racing conditions. The experienced French racer has kept increasing her lead this week and is an impressive 20 points clear now.

Zofia Noceti-Klepacka from Poland climbed up to second with two bullets today. Another French racer Eugenie Ricard (4,6,11) climbed to third overall and is closely followed by Maayan Davidovich from Israel, bronze medallist from the 2013 RS:X World Championship. Davidovich got a 5,4,2 in her bag today.

It was a frustrating day for Britons’ Bryony Shaw and Izzy Hamilton as they dropped from second and and seventh to fifth and ninth respectively. Patricia Freitas from Brazil also dropped down to 10th having been third overnight.

London 2012 Olympic gold medallist Marina Alabau (2,10,8) improved after an unsuccessful start of the regatta in light wind and jumped and jumped up to eighth position. Alabau was happy with her speed even though some tactical decisions were not that good.

RSX Men

The Men’s RS:X leader board has changed as well. The man of the day and present leader of the regatta is Julien Bontemps from France who, with his 3,1,1, jumped from fifth overall to first. He holds a six point lead over Poland’s Piotr Myszka (7,4,6) and his compatriot Przemyslaw Miarczynski (2,5,4) who climbed into the top three from seventh overall.

It was a tough racing day for Pierre le Coq (15,21,13) to and he slips down from third overall to 11th. Strong wind specialists like Nick Dempsey (11,20,19) and Dorian Van Rijsselberge (14,6,8) were not too happy with their racing at but still confidently sit in the top ten.

Frustration is the name of the day for both Silver fleets. Longest waiting onshore turned into a long waiting on the water after completing only one race.

With another three races scheduled for tomorrow the overall picture can be easily changed with the top ten in the Men’s and Women’s fleet quite close on points which makes the game very interesting, so please follow the action at the ISAF World Championship! We keep our fingers crossed for the good sailing conditions!

Website: http://www.santander2014.com/

ISAF Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/user/isafchannel

Photo Credit - Vincenzo BAGLIONE / www.rsxclass.org, Friedrich WILHELM

RESULTS: http://www.sailing.org/events/isafworlds/results-santander2014.php

Top10 RSX Girls:

1 FRA FRA 4
Charline Picon
 1 1 (4) 2 2 3 3 3 19.00 15.00
2 POL POL 8
Zofia Noceti-Klepacka
 (16) 3 3 10 9 1 8 1 51.00 35.00
3 FRA FRA 22
Eugénie Ricard
 9 1 5 6 8 4 6 (11) 50.00 39.00
4 ISR ISR 10
Maayan Davidovich
 4 10 6 8 (16) 5 4 2 55.00 39.00
5 GBR GBR 9
Bryony Shaw
 5 11 1 5 2 9 (23) 10 66.00 43.00
6 NED NED 171
Lilian De Geus
 2 10 5 10 5 10 5 (13) 60.00 47.00
7 CHN CHN 5
Jiahui Wu
 3 15 (16) 1 7 6 11 5 64.00 48.00
8 ESP ESP 5
Marina Alabau
 5 (16) 13 6 6 2 10 8 66.00 50.00
9 GBR GBR 30
Isobel Hamilton
 6 2 7 (16) 8 13 7 9 68.00 52.00
10 BRA BRA 8
Patricia Freitas
 9 2 9 2 3 15 15 (18) 73.00 55.00

Top10 RSX Men:

1 FRA FRA 6
Julien Bontemps
 4 3 5 (7) 3 3 1 1 27.00 20.00
2 POL POL 82
Piotr Myszka
 4 2 (10) 2 1 7 4 6 36.00 26.00
3 POL POL 126
Przemyslaw Miarczynski
 2 7 (8) 2 6 2 5 4 36.00 28.00
4 GRE GRE 8
Byron Kokkalanis
 6 4 1 5 4 DPI 8 (15) 3 46.00 31.00
5 FRA FRA 3
Thomas Goyard
 19 (30) 3 3 2 5 2 2 66.00 36.00
6 NED NED 8
Dorian Van Rijsselberge
 3 8 7 3 4 (14) 6 8 53.00 39.00
7 FRA FRA 1
Louis Giard
 1 3 11 8 8 6 10 (12) 59.00 47.00
8 GBR GBR 1
Nick Dempsey
 5 6 1 4 3 11 (20) 19 69.00 49.00
9 GER GER 3
Toni Wilhelm
 3 4 3 5 (22) 18 8 9 72.00 50.00
10 NED NED 9
Kiran Badloe
 2 5 10 (17) 7 9 9 11 70.00 53.00

The qualification hunt goes on!

Posted on by Andrus Poksi

2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship

RS:X Men

The weather was pleasing for the Men’s RS:X fleet with an easterly wind which allowed the Race Committee to set the course quick and complete race number 5, the last race of the Qualification Series for the Men’s RSX. Another 7 races to be sailed as scheduled, but this time in Gold (first half of RSX Men after Qualifications) and Silver Fleets with the last race of the regatta - Medal Race, sailed only by Top10 competitors.

A tricky offshore breeze with seaweed across course made racing tough and unpredictable. The yellow fleet leaders took off from the many, many sailors were on port, and they hit the left corner on the upwind, which paid off in the end.

The downwind strategy for the majority of the guys was to keep planing in the gusts. The top three finishers in the yellow fleet were Piotr Myszka from Poland, Thomas Goyard and Julien Bontemps from France.

A brilliant planing start on port in front of the entire Blue fleet unfortunately didn’t help JP Tobin (NZL) to finish among leaders as he went to the right side whilst the winning side appeared to be left.

In the end Pierre le Coq from France took the bullet (See the video of Pierre’s interview this morning before the race-https://vimeo.com/106283877 ) followed by Byron Kokkalanis (GRE) and Nick Dempsey (GBR).

This brought the qualification series to a close with the fleets now splitting up into gold and silver.

Women’s RS:X racers have had a lay day today, so the leaders remain the same: Charline Picon (FRA), Bryony Shaw (GBR) and Patricia Freitas (BRA). The girl’s will continue racing in Gold and Silver fleet tomorrow.

There will be a strong battle in RS:X Men for those 18 qualification spots allocated for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games from the current World Championship. There are 23 countries in the Gold fleet (49 competitors) and 5 countries will come back home without a desired qualification spot.

Same applies to the Women’s RSX, where 15 counties got into a Gold fleet, 31 competitors in total, with only 13 nations able to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games 2016 in Santander. Check out the Olympic Qualification System.

The weather forecast looks quite optimistic for a good racing on Wednesday so please keep an eye on the action here in Santander at the ISAF Sailing World Championship.

Championship website: http://www.santander2014.com/

RESULTS after day 4

http://www.sailing.org/events/isafworlds/results-santander2014.php

Top10 RSX Men:

Pos Nation Sail Number Crew Race Points
1 2 3 4 5 Total Net
1 POL POL 82
Piotr Myszka
 4 2 (10) 2 1 19.00 9.00
2 GRE GRE 8
Byron Kokkalanis
 (6) 4 1 5 2 18.00 12.00
3 FRA FRA 77
Pierre le Coq
 1 1 (50)
DSQ		 10 1 63.00 13.00
4 GBR GBR 1
Nick Dempsey
 5 (6) 1 4 3 19.00 13.00
5 FRA FRA 6
Julien Bontemps
 4 3 5 (7) 3 22.00 15.00
6 GER GER 3
Toni Wilhelm
 3 4 3 5 (22) 37.00 15.00
7 POL POL 126
Przemyslaw Miarczynski
 2 7 (8) 2 6 25.00 17.00
8 NED NED 8
Dorian Van Rijsselberge
 3 (8) 7 3 4 25.00 17.00
9 FRA FRA 1
Louis Giard
 1 3 (11) 8 8 31.00 20.00
10 CHN CHN 1
Aichen Wang
 9 (13) 6 1 5 34.00 21.00

Top10 RSX Girls:

Pos Nation Sail Number Crew Race Points
1 2 3 4 5 Total Net
1 FRA FRA 4
Charline Picon
 1 1 (4) 2 2 10.00 6.00
2 GBR GBR 9
Bryony Shaw
 5 (11) 1 5 2 24.00 13.00
3 BRA BRA 8
Patricia Freitas
 (9) 2 9 2 3 25.00 16.00
4 POL POL 21
Malgorzata Bialecka
 6 5 3 4 (7) 25.00 18.00
5 FRA FRA 22
Eugénie Ricard
 (9) 1 5 6 8 29.00 20.00
6 NED NED 171
Lilian De Geus
 2 (10) 5 10 5 32.00 22.00
7 GBR GBR 30
Isobel Hamilton
 6 2 7 (16) 8 39.00 23.00
8 POL POL 8
Zofia Noceti-Klepacka
 (16) 3 3 10 9 41.00 25.00
9 POL POL 104
Kamila Smektala
 8 8 (12) 5 4 37.00 25.00
10 CHN CHN 5
Jiahui Wu
 3 15 (16) 1 7 42.00 26.00

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No wind scenario for day 3 at the ISAF World Championships in Santander

Posted on by Andrus Poksi

Santander 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship

15 September 2014

The weather in Santander doesn’t want to cooperate with organisers of the biggest sailing event of 2014. A light north-west wind has brought all day postponements for the RS:X Women but some solace can be the fact of using the day for recovery after hard pumping day yesterday.

RS:X Men were sent out to race, but came back soon with one unsuccessful attempt, when race was cancelled at the top mark due to lack of the wind.

Results remain almost the same for the guys: on the top of the ranking - Piotr Myszka from Poland, second is Nick Dempsey from Great Britain and Byron Kokkalanis from Greece is on third.

But there have been big changes in the women’s fleet after overnight protest hearings.

The top three are Charline Picon (FRA), Bryony Shaw (GBR) and Patricia Freitas (BRA). Two more Polish sailors jumped into the top ten including Zofia Klepacka (mother of two and bronze medallist from London-2012) and Ex ISAF Youth World Champion Kamila Smektala. The top Polish racer is Malgorzata Bialecka “Gosia” who comfortably sits fourth overall.

Chinese girl Jiali Sun must have had the most frustrating day yesterday being disqualified from race number 4 (where she finished 9th) for the wrong finish line crossing. She also received a penalty in the race number 5 (which she has won) for not carrying the safety whistle while racing. That dropped her from 14th overall to 32nd, where she missed the Gold Fleet by one point only. The same happened to Italy’s Mattia Camboni - ISAF Youth Champion 2013 who received a “whistle penalty” in the race 3, where he finished second. That moved him from 11th overall to 16th.

First day leader Pierre le Coq’s (FRA) disqualification in the race number 3 didn’t affect his overall position of sixth.

Tomorrow’s scheduled lay day will be used for racing and the athletes hope for good winds and quality Race Committee work.

Website: http://www.santander2014.com/

RESULTS after day 3
http://www.sailing.org/events/isafworlds/results-santander2014.php

Top10 RSX Men:

Pos Nation Sail Number Crew Race Points
1 2 3 4 Total Net
1 POL POL 82
Piotr Myszka
 4 2 (10) 2 18.00 8.00
2 GBR GBR 1
Nick Dempsey
 5 (6) 1 4 16.00 10.00
3 GRE GRE 8
Byron Kokkalanis
 (6) 4 1 5 16.00 10.00
4 GER GER 3
Toni Wilhelm
 3 4 3 (5) 15.00 10.00
5 POL POL 126
Przemyslaw Miarczynski
 2 7 (8) 2 19.00 11.00
6 FRA FRA 77
Pierre le Coq
 1 1 (50)
DSQ		 10 62.00 12.00
7 CHN CHN 6
Chunzhuang Liu
 (16) 9 2 1 28.00 12.00
8 FRA FRA 1
Louis Giard
 1 3 (11) 8 23.00 12.00
9 FRA FRA 6
Julien Bontemps
 4 3 5 (7) 19.00 12.00
10 NED NED 8
Dorian Van Rijsselberge
 3 (8) 7 3 21.00 13.00

Top10 RSX Girls:

Pos Nation Sail Number Crew Race Points
1 2 3 4 5 Total Net
1 FRA FRA 4
Charline Picon
 1 1 (4) 2 2 10.00 6.00
2 GBR GBR 9
Bryony Shaw
 5 (11) 1 5 2 24.00 13.00
3 BRA BRA 8
Patricia Freitas
 (9) 2 9 2 3 25.00 16.00
4 POL POL 21
Malgorzata Bialecka
 6 5 3 4 (7) 25.00 18.00
5 FRA FRA 22
Eugénie Ricard
 (9) 1 5 6 8 29.00 20.00
6 NED NED 171
Lilian De Geus
 2 (10) 5 10 5 32.00 22.00
7 GBR GBR 30
Isobel Hamilton
 6 2 7 (16) 8 39.00 23.00
8 POL POL 8
Zofia Noceti-Klepacka
 (16) 3 3 10 9 41.00 25.00
9 POL POL 104
Kamila Smektala
 8 8 (12) 5 4 37.00 25.00
10 CHN CHN 5
Jiahui Wu
 3 15 (16) 1 7 42.00 26.00


Photo credit Vincenzo Baglione/RS:X class.com
https://plus.google.com/photos/101858215046923276659/albums/6055854126205730049


3rd racing day of the ISAF World Championship has started

Posted on by Andrus Poksi

RSX Men Yellow and Blue groups hit the water half an hour ago to finish their Qualification Series, whеrе only onе race is missing. The start of the Finals planed for today as well. We keep our fingers crossed for the good stable wind during entire day.

Some changes in the results appeared after yesterdays protest hearings. Chineese girl Jiali Sun must have had the most frustrating day yesterday being disqulified from the race number 4 (where she finished 9th) for the wrong finish line crossing. She also received a penalty in the race number 5 (which she has won) for not carrying the safty whistle while racing. That droped her from 14th overal to 32nd, where she missed a Gold Fleet by 1 point only.

Italian Mattia Gamboni - ISAF Youth Champion 2013 has received same “whistle penalty” in the race 3, where he finished second. That moved him from 11th overall to 16th.

Sailors hope for a hair winds and efficient Racing Committee work!

The RS:X Women fleet finished the Qualification series

Posted on by Andrus Poksi

Santander 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship

14 September 2014

Women’s RS:X

Women’s RS:X was the fastest class to complete their schedule in Santander, while RSX Men where struggling to have their race run. There was a big confusion for girls on the finishing line which was set differently then usial but with the jury working on the decision the current results are provisional.

Over the racing Lilian de Geus (NED), who finished on the podium at the Aquece Rio - International Sailing Regatta 2014 said, “Looks like it’s a lightwind event,” and that pretty much sums up the general feeling for the entire girls fleet with tough light wind racing, tricky breeze, lots of pumping and tired sailors.

Malgorzata Bialecka (POL) who is positioned fourth overall is one of the happiest racers on the course. Having completed a Half-Iron Man Race earlier in August she is very much ready for the hard aerobic work in Santander.

The top ten girls are all within 10-13 points interval from one to ten which promises a tough and interesting fight as the competition develops. Charline Picon (FRA) continues to lead the way.

Qualification series has concluded with five races completed.

As it stands 15 nations enter the gold fleet with only 13 Rio 2016 Women’s RS:X spots up for grabs in Santander.

Men’s RS:X

Contrary to the female fleet the Men’s RS:X found the going tough with a long wait for breeze and for proper Racing Commettee action on the water which led to some frustrations.

Nick Dempsey (GBR), Olympic medallist from Athens 2004 and London 2012, was pretty happy with his day’s solid performance. With a long day on the water he kept his composure and recorded a 1-4 and he climbs up into second place.

Piotr Myszka (POL) leads the fleet after a 10-2 on the race track but there is real drama developing in the Men’s RS:X fleet with just five points separating places one to ten.

With the current forecast the battle will be even tougher and extremely interesting for spectators watching the action.

Website: http://www.santander2014.com/

ISAF Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/user/isafchannel
Photo Credit - Vincenzo Baglione / www.rsxclass.org

Results can be found here:

http://www.sailing.org/events/isafworlds/results-santander2014.php

Top10 RSX Men:

Pos Sail num Sailor Races Total Net
1 2 3 4
1 POL82 Piotr Myszka 4 2 -10 2 18 8
2 GBR1 Nick Dempsey 5 -6 1 4 16.00 10.00
3 GRE8 Byron Kokkalanis -6 4 1 5 16.00 10.00
4 GER3 Toni Wilhelm 3 4 3 -5 15.00 10.00
5 POL126 Przemyslaw Miarczynski 2 7 -8 2 19.00 11.00
6 FRA77 Pierre le Coq 1 1 -10 10 22.00 12.00
7 CHN6 Chunzhuang Liu -16 9 2 1 28.00 12.00
8 FRA1 Louis Giard 1 3 -11 8 23.00 12.00
9 FRA6 Julien Bontemps 4 3 5 -7 19.00 12.00
10 NED8 Dorian Van Rijsselberge 3 -8 7 3 21.00 13.00

Top10 RSX Girls:

Pos Sail num Sailor Races Total Net
1 2 3 4 5
1 FRA4 Charline Picon 1 1 -4 2 2 10.00 6.00
2 GBR9 Bryony Shaw 5 -11 1 5 2 24.00 13.00
3 BRA8 Patricia Freitas -9 2 9 2 3 25.00 16.00
4 POL21 Malgorzata Bialecka 6 5 3 6 -7 27.00 20.00
5 CHN3 Qiaoshan Weng 13 -14 1 3 5 36.00 22.00
6 FRA22 Eugenie Ricard -9 1 5 8 8 31.00 22.00
7 NED171 Lilian De Geus 2 -10 5 10 5 32.00 22.00
8 NZL8 Natalia Kosinska 10 5 -18 4 3 40.00 22.00
9 GBR30 Isobel Hamilton 6 2 7 -16 8 39.00 23.00
10 CHN5 Jiahui Wu 3 15 -16 1 7 42.00 26.00





The Youth Scholarship for the New RS:X Countries!

Posted on by Andrus Poksi

The Executive Committee of the RS:X Class decided on its meeting in Santander on 11th of September to support the new RS:X countries and opened the Youth Scholarship for those countries who’s RS:X sailor will participate on the 2014 RS:X Youth World Championships for the first time with the history since 2012.

The Youth Scholarship covers the 50% of the cost of the charter equipment at the RS:X Youth Worlds with maximum of five sets total and one set per country. The applications shall be sent to the RS:X Class ([email protected]) by 25th September 2014 and will be dealt with on a first come, first served basis. The final decision will be made by Executive Committee on 30th of September 2014.

Fair Winds,
RS:X Class Executive Committee