The sea breeze returned on the fourth day of the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 World Championships in Canada, with the Aussie teams doing their best to move up before tomorrow’s penultimate day.
Rhiannan Brown is sailing with Brin Liddell in the Nacra 17 foiling cat. They are part of the Australian Sailing Futures program and have been climbing up the standings to now be in 20th place.
“The regatta has been really good. Lot of ups and downs, and a lot of learnings, which is really good. As a team, we can really see that we’re really progressing with the fleet. It is great to be in Canada, but we have a lot to work on when we get back home.”
“In general, it has been a pretty good regatta for Jason (Waterhouse) and Lisa (Darmanin). The Italians are setting the pace for sure, but Jason and Lisa are on par with the rest of the world. They’re sailing well, but struggling a little with the weed. Of course, that issue is affecting everyone.”
Darmanin and Waterhouse posted 6-3-14 today, which consolidated their fifth overall.
Darmanin said of their 14th, “We had a good pin end start, but the rest of the fleet saw something on the right. We got back into it in about fifth place up the second beat, but hit a big bit of weed on our leeward foil. We had to tack out to clear it. It’s super frustrating, but overall a good day.”
Sailing in her very first 49erFX World Championship is Evie Haseldine, who is in good hands as she is being skippered by Olympic match racing silver medallist, Olivia Price.
Price and Haseldine are currently in 25th place, so how does the young sailor see it all?
“I think it’s been a really tough first world championship for us. We came into the regatta with the mentality to enjoy the racing, while achieving our team performance goals. We’ve certainly been able to do just that, which is promising. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to correlate to the results because the fleet here is so strong.”
“For me it’s been a balance between comparing myself to the older, more experienced girls, and sticking to my own progression. Similarly, it’s a fine line between putting too much pressure on myself, and just needing to enjoy the experience and what it has to offer.”
Price skippered the Women’s match racing crew at the London 2012 Games. The 49erFx is a very different craft, so what does it all mean for her?
“I’m excited to be back at a world championship after five or six years off sailing. To be honest, I needed the break, but have now come back loving the sport more than ever.”
“It’s great to see the evolution of the class, and the level of competition is always being raised each regatta we go to. To be racing against the best 49erFX sailors in the world is a great opportunity for a new team like Evie and I, to learn and take everything we can from this week, as we move into a summer season at home.”
Racing concludes on Monday September 5, 2022.
Australian Sailing Team (AST), Australian Sailing Squad (ASS) and Australian Sailing Futures (ASF) at the 2022 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 World Championships:
49er – Gold Fleet
23rd – Tom Burton and Simon Hoffman (ASS) – (DNF), 20, 5, 9, 7, 12, 17, 4, 20, 19, 24 (137 points)
24th – Jack Ferguson and Max Paul (ASS) – 18, 1, 18, 12, (29), 7, 1, 21, 24, 21, 15 (138 points)
49er – Silver Fleet
26rth- Tom Needham and Joel Turner (ASS) – 12, 14, 6, 24, 20, (29), 11, 4, 8, 5, 10 (114 points)
35th- Jim Colley and Shaun Connor (ASS) – 22, 25, 8, 32, 15, 6, 19, 5,2, 7, (UFD) (141 points)
51st – Ryan Littlechild and Jack Hildebrand (ASF) – (DNF), 26, 28, 27, 3, 25, 24, 14, 27, 27, 25 (212 points)
49erFX – 36 entries
20th – Laura Harding and Annie Wilmot (ASS) – 21, 10, 10, 11, 6, 25, (31), 17, 21, 28, 10, 29 (188 points)
25th – Olivia Price and Evie Haseldine (ASS) – 23, 7, (29), 25, 20, 20, 19, 26, 28, 12, 28, 25 (233 points)
27th – Tess Lloyd and Dervla Duggan (ASS) – 28, (29), 15, 19, 22, 18, 29, 22, 26, 24, 25, 15 (243 points)
Nacra 17 – 34 entries
5th – Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin (AST) – 9, 5, 5, 3, 14, 5, 5, (21), 5, 6, 3, 14 (74 points)
20th – Jake Liddell and Lucy Copeland (ASS) – 6, 14, 10, 22, 10, 14, 27, (31), 23, 23, 21, 25 (195 points)
20th – Brin Liddell and Rhiannan Brown (ASF) – 21, 21, 17, 15, 21, (22), 6, 15, 22, 17, 18, 22 (195 points)
For full results, go to: https://49er.org/event/2022-world-championship/?event_id=28702#49erresults
By John Curnow
