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News - Wednesday 26th October
CALM DAY ENDS AGAIN IN EXTREME CONDITIONS
High seas, capsized catamarans and rescue boats all over the place, sailors struggling to come back safely...
it has been a strange day. Wednesday October 26th started with a calm, nice breeze from the north, blue skies and lots
of sun. Music resounded over the Hobie Beach, while all boats were already rigged up. The masters and grand masters got
the honour to start off the 2005 Hobie Cat 16 World Championships. Just before their first race the wind already shifted
to the east and started to pick up. When they returned to the beach, we saw happy faces. “The conditions are perfect”, was
the general reaction.
By the end of the morning, the H16s were swopped with the youth and women teams, who completed two races in row. Obviously,
the French dominated both classes.
Morgane Laurancy and Marion Pennaneach got a first and second place, which put them in the lead. Cédric Bader and and Yann
Montaya also had a second and first.
Ladies -
“We haven’t sailed on the Hobie 16, since one year”, said Morgane. They switched to match racing in keelboats, but decided
to try their luck in this year’s Hobie Cat 16 Worlds Women and Open. And it is actually their first World Championship
together. Pennaneach: “It was very windy with high waves out there. The racing was close with the other French team of Marie
Duvignac and Pauline Thevenot.” They are considered as favourites, but started with an OCS and won the last race. Current
Hobie Cat 16 Women World Champion Pamela Noriega and her crew Andrea Mier y Teran from Mexico are in second position,
followed by the Australian ladies Belinda Zanesco and Susan Ghent.
Youth
“It was a difficult day”, said Cédric Bader afterwards in the yacht club. “The second team of Sébastian Eyssartier and
Iea Jeandot was very strong and the competition with them and Juani Maegli and Cristina Guirola from Guatamala was tough.
” Cédric and Yann have a successful sailing season, as they won the Hobie 16 European Youth and Open title. According to
the Fench youngsters, their goal in South Africa is to win the youth and to finish in the top five in the open Worlds.
“That won’t be easy”, admits Yann.
Masters
“We started late”, said South African Blaine Dodds after the first race early in the afternoon. He and his 19-year old daughter
Roxanne didn’t notice that the starting procedure was already at work. “We were checking the weather on the sea, so we were
too late and split tacks all the time. That paid, because we were third at the windward mark and first at the leeward one.
” Blaine is an experienced Hobie Cat 16 sailor, as he won the World title in 1998.
By the time the masters and grand masters
left the beach for their second race, the wind had increased to more than 20 knots. Getting to the starting line caused
some problems. The brand new Hobie 16s capsized all over the place, even under the pier. Some teams decided to return after
multiple nose dives, and others continued. But all of them got troubles to manage the extreme conditions, with wind gusts
up to 35 knots and a huge swell. Sailors were washed off the trampoline and two cats were damaged. Besides from some
stitches and bruises, nobody got seriously injured.
In the mid-afternoon, the race committee cancelled the race. All
people and boats arrived safely back on the Hobie Beach and the wind is still blowing. Since the the masters only sailed
one official race today, Blaine and Roxanne Dodds are in first position in the masters’ fleet of 43 cats, followed by the
Americans Mike Montague and Kathy Ward, and the Australian team of Bruce Tardrew with Sarah Turnbull. Harry Handley and
Lynda Paarman from New Zealand are leading the ten grand masters.
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