SAILING NEWS ITEM

Racing Kicks Off at French Olympic Sailing Week

MONDAY, 21 APRIL 2008
Submitted By: Maricar Cinco

Skandia Team GBR’s sailors endured mixed fortunes on a breezy opening day of racing at the French Olympic Sailing Week in Hyeres yesterday, April 20.

With wind speeds reaching up to 25 knots and with big waves hitting the southern French venue, there were plenty of capsizes and breakages across the world-class fleet on day one of this six-day Grade 1 event.

Amongst all the chaos, Yngling World and European Champions Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb, and Pippa Wilson scored two solid results, opening their series with 3,1 to see them in second place overall on the first day, behind the German trio skippered by Ulrike Schuemann.

Athens silver medalists Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield, competing for the first time since the 470 Worlds in January, also made a strong start with a first and a second from their opening two races to put on equal points at the top of the table with Portuguese pair Alvaro Marinho and Miguel Nunes.

John Robertson, Hannah Stodel, and Stephen Thomas won the only race of the day in the Paralympic Sonar class, while Helena Lucas and Megan Pascoe managed third and fourth places, respectively.

After a solid start in the 470 women’s fleet with a third from their opening race, Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark had to retire from the second race with a broken mast, while Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes suffered a similar fate in the 49er fleet.

The world silver medalists won their first race of the day and were in fourth place at the windward mark in the second race when they capsized. Resulting equipment problems meant the Exmouth pair had to return to shore for repairs ahead of the scheduled third race, which was then canceled when wind speeds reached 25 knots.

Paul Campbell James and Mark Asquith were also leading their only race of the day in the 49er blue fleet when their rig broke, while Dave Evans and double Olympic medalist Simon Hiscocks saw a promising start to their new partnership, with a fifth in their one and only race of the day.

Nick Thompson’s was the best British performance of the day in the Laser fleet with 3,1 to put him in second place overall, in spite of a knotted mainsheet in the first race, while European Champion Paul Goodison picked up a 15th after a bad start in race one, followed by a sixth to see him in 23rd overall.

In the Tornado fleet, Leigh McMillan and Will Howden had consistent day with a seventh and a sixth from their two races to see them into sixth place overall with training partners Andrew Walsh and Ed Barney in tenth, while Ed Wright is the top British Finn sailor, in eighth place overall.

Racing at the 2008 French Olympic Sailing Week continues until Friday, April 25. ( - Lindsey Bell)

Source:
www.bymnews.com

GLOBAL SAILING SEARCH

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER

Stay up-to-date with all sailing News by becoming a member and joining our sailing Community.

SUBMIT NEWS ITEM

If you know any Sailing Events or News that you would like to share with the world, then we invite you to Submit a News Item.