15th December
Sam Street has sailed a near-flawless WASZP Games campaign to be the first sailor to claim two WASZP Games titles with back-to-back wins in 2022 (Lake Garda) & 2023 (Sorrento). While, UK sailor Hattie Rogers claimed her first ever Women’s WASZP Games title and finished 14th overall. With this result, Hattie also moved to number 1 on the women’s global rankings.
A day that started with a few sore bodies after yesterday’s six race day, the uptake for the morning yoga was big! Those who wanted to also got a rig/sail masterclass from Andrew McDougall in the morning tech talk.
Everything seemed to be set up for a beautiful Sorrento day to finish the event. The temperature was right and the wind flicked south at about 1pm. However, hopes of a full card of 4 races were dashed when the wind randomly shifted into the dreaded North-east direction. After 1.5 hours of waiting on the water, the southerly finally arrived with a bang and the final two races were completed in glorious 15knot, flat water conditions.
After the “mandatory” general recall, the fleet finally got away in a shifting south breeze that was moving further left. Danish sailor Magnus Overbeck looked to be finding his groove, great speed both up and down wind, to take an all the way victory. Sam Street was sitting in the early 20s around the first mark, however managed to work his way back to 7th which was enough to clinch the title with a race to spare.
Norwegian sailor Markus Berthet continued his good form with a 2nd place while Swiss Sailor Micha De Weck claimed his best race of the event and finished in 3rd.
In the final race of the day it was a cracker. The best WASZP racing of the week, with nothing more than a few boat lengths between the sailors all the way through the fleet. The tightness of one-design WASZP racing is something to behold and it was on show today. You could throw a blanket over Magnus Overbeck, Markus Berthet and Sam Street for the entire race, multiple lead changes through out the race, Markus Berthet led at the final top gate, however, dropped his mainsheet through the tack which was enough to let Overbeck through, Overbeck then put the turbo on and sailed away to a comprehensive second win of the day. Berthet then touched down through his final gybe to the finish and allowed Street to pass him on the short run to the finish.
In the women’s division, Hattie Rogers had an event to remember, showing we are not too far away from seeing one of our women WASZP sailors claiming the overall victory, it was the best placed performance by a women sailor at an International Games. She was followed in by Helena Sanderson from NZ and Tess Lloyd who showed awesome improvement throughout the event, enjoying the more “Sorrento Like” conditions to post some great scores in the final 3 races.
In the Super-Master division, Andrew McDougall had a spectacular final day to take the win from I14 champion Brad Devine and Jervis Tilly. A a 10th place in the final race showed Amac still can mix it with the best.
In the Masters division, Dave Shaw from NZ had a great battle with George Wills also from NZ, Wills had a great final day with a 14th and a 32nd to move up the standings. In third place Ryan Grieve from Victoria improved every race to manage to slide in front of Richard Steedman from Tasmania.
The 6.9m division was an exciting climax with Pia Tvieta from Norway claiming victory by just 4pts from Callum Simmons of Victoria, Australia. Brenn Armstrong from Western Australia followed them in his first major WASZP regatta.
In the Juniors, Louis Tilly sailed a great back half of the event to get back to 7th overall and claim the Junior Championship. Swiss Sailor Micha De Weck came home strong to put some pressure on Tilly. While Andrew Chisholm showed he will be a force to be reckoned with in the future finishing 13th overall.
One of the recent additions to the class is the family trophy, Jervis and Louis Tilly won it, followed closely by the Devines, Tommy and Brad and the Simmons Siblings.
Overall, behind Street, Overbeck claimed 2nd place and Frenchman Hippolyte Gruet finished 3rd after sitting in 2nd for the majority of the event. In 4th Tim Howse from NZ in his first WASZP regatta climbed the ladder and Makrus Berthet rounded out the top 5.
As the sun sets on a ripping event, attention now turns to the next bucket list event on the schedule in Hawaii for the Americas Championships and then onto Norway for next years International WASZP Games. This class continues to go from strength to strength.
