A solid start in the only Nacra 17 race today led to a clear win for Gimson and Burnet of Great Britain, a result even more impressive considering the pair had not trained since August’s world championships. A knee injury for Burnet, attention to sponsors and fitting out a new boat conspired to keep them off the water, but the pair already has their ticket to the Paris Games and will be full-on through the big event in Marseille.
“It’s a bit of finding our feet this week and remembering what to do,” said Burnet who along with Gimson were runners up in the Tokyo Olympics. “It’s also about reminding ourselves what to work on this winter.”
Days like today seem underwhelming in boats that have the potential to rip above the water at double-digit speeds, but the racing was no less challenging. “We tried popping a hull up, didn’t really work so we switched to both hulls on the water,” said Rita Booth who is crewing for her brother Ruben for Australia.
Attempts to hop up on foils downwind also failed for the current junior world champions who were initiated into multihull sailing as toddlers by their father Mitch Booth, a double Olympic medalist in the Tornado catamaran. With a Catalonian mother and Australian father, the two may have an opening to represent Australia in Paris after the retirement of Olympic silver medalist Jason Waterhouse, whose crew Lisa Darmanin is now crewing for sailing coach Darren Bundock.
Today ’s race was only the first of 16 and with reigning Olympic champions Tita and Banti, and other hungry teams with keeper first races, predicting the podium would be folly.
For full results: visit this page
For more information on the Nacra 17 racing, visit the event page: https://nacra17.org/event/2023-european-championship/
