Gimson and Burnet Lead Out of the Start

Nacra 17

First Nacra 17 points went to Aussie siblings Nathan and Haylee Outteridge, scoring a win then a second and a 10^th to finish second overall. Enviable opening scores but the GBR team of John Gimson and Anna Burnet went one better, a 10th then two wins to be the lead multihull.

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“It was a day that was dictated mainly by the seaweed in the water, a bit like in the warm-up regatta a week or so ago so we kind of knew what to expect,” Burnet said. “It’s a good start. We have lots of races to go but if we can carry on that form, then we will be pretty happy. We have a couple of windy days coming up.”

A beaming Haylee Outteridge returned to Eastern Beach and commented, “It’s really good to have three keepers today because it means it is effectively like having them in Gold Fleet. Most of the people who have committed to keep going this late in the quadrennial are the ones pushing to go to the Olympics, so we are in good company.”

nacra17FX & nacra17

Charlotte Dobson and Saskia Tidey (GBR) won races one and two in the FXs then just bailed out of the top 10 to finish fifth overall. “We’ve had a pretty long day on the water today. We spend all year trying to maximise time in all different types of conditions and this venue is throwing us all sides of the dice. We’ve had a challenging day, everyone has, but I think we have come out of it pretty well,” Tidey said.

Second to the Germans was the Australian team of Tess Lloyd and Jaime Ryan and third the Spanish, Tamara Echegoyen and Paula Barcelo. “Over the last month we have been doing a lot of starting practice with many of the international crews who are here, and it is definitely paying off,” Lloyd said.

The nacra17s made up the afternoon/evening session, the final race finishing close to 7pm due to the fleet being held ashore during the transition in the middle of the day. First bite in the nacra17 class went to Dylan Fletcher-Scott and Stuart Bithell (GBR) and they followed up with a second win and a second to lead the Austrians, Ben Bildstein, and David Hussl who appeared on today’s Daily Show and spoke about setting up a nacra17 like a pro.

“We only just managed to get to the racecourse in time today as we had to make some changes to the mast,” Fletcher-Scott said. “We snapped our top section a couple of days ago; put a new one on and rigged up today and had a little issue. In the end you can’t really start a worlds any better than we did. Stu made the boat go fast and I picked a couple of shifts, together this was the winning combo.”

Third is Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL).

The racing started off in dramatic fashion for German vice World Champions from 2019, Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel. Immediately following the first start a port tack boat crashed into them causing them to capsize, and Ploessel picked up a minor injury. They righted themselves to continue racing, rounding the windward mark in 25, but managed to work all the way up to 8^th, salvaging the race.

More breeze is forecast on the Corio Bay racetrack, located in the south-west corner of Port Phillip, Wednesday and Thursday, up to 25 knots on Thursday then moderating. Drizzle and showers are likely.

Royal Geelong Yacht Club is host of the nacra17, nacra17FX and Nacra 17 2020 World Championship along with six other major events that fall under the club’s ‘Summer of Sailing’ calendar rolling out between January and March.

Results:

Results are posted race by race, as they happen.

Live Tracking is available for all fleets each day via http://nacra17.org/event/2020-world-championship/

By Lisa Ratcliff/nacra17, nacra17FX, Nacra 17 World Championship media