Day 3 of the 2025 Hansa and Para World Championships on Pittwater arrived and all were keen to launch from Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (RPAYC) to start the day’s sailing after avoiding the morning downpour which had transformed into a blue sky and sun right on time.
The Hansa 303 Two Person fleet was back on the water today. The aim was four races after the class only completed one on the opening day due to the extremely difficult conditions dealt out by the wind gods. And four races it was.
Chris Symonds and Maunela Klinger (AUS) came out all guns blazing and the Tasmanians were leading – until a drop came into play. Piotr Cichocki and Olga Górnas-Grudzien (POL) are at the top of the leaderboard after dropping their 15th place from Race 1 on Tuesday.
In second is the British pair of Rory McKinna and Jess Wong, who dropped a 13th place also from Day 1, while Symonds and Klinger have been relegated to third overall, their drop being a sixth place. This class is shaping up to be a humdinger.
Cichocki explained, “Some of these crews are lighter than ours, so sometimes it’s hard when it’s on the edge, but that is sailing conditions, so it’s OK,” he said.
“We are trying to stay in front and hope they have to come to try and catch us,” he said, citing the two teams behind them as their major competition. “But there are a few others as well. Our day went really great, it was good sailing conditions.”
Two more races for the Liberty’s and with six now sailed, Yuen Wai Foo (HKG) still leads – on countback to Charles Weatherly (AUS) – again. The day did not go according to plan for the Hong Kong sailor. He retired from Race 5, but bounced back to place third in Race 6.
Weatherly’s 2-1 results have him well and truly back in the picture. He is in second place but on equal points with the leader. Vera Voorbach (NED), a past World and European champion, is still third, but is now a mere point away from the top two after 1-2 results today. This class is sure to be a nailbiter to the end.
Back at the RPAYC, Weatherly commented, “Vera’s very good in the light stuff, she’s rock solid. She sails all the time, I sail part time, but I’ve been doing some training for the Worlds.
“The Hong Kong guy, Foo, stitched me up at Southport, but I don’t like being beaten, so I made friends with him, That makes it easier when I’m beaten!
“Foo didn’t finish the first race today, because he picked up weed on his rudders. The Hong Kong manager asked me if I put the weed there and I said, ‘no’, that one of my friends had!
“The first time I sailed here at Pittwater was 2004 and every second year we sailed here in the Jubilees. I love sailing here, it suits me.”
Voorbach commented, “It was a very good day, we had quite good wind, 10-13 knots, but shifty, so you had to get the good shifts. I got them in the first race and got far ahead and kept getting good shifts. It was difficult to see them on the water today though.
“The second race was more challenging. At the second mark, there was no wind then a 30 degree shift, then the wind popped up again! You have to concentrate the whole course.
“The first day there was a lot of wind. It was just a little bit too much for me and very different to where I live,” ended Voorbach, who has previously sailed Worlds in Sydney, but never sailed at Pittwater. “It’s very good here. I’ve met sailors that I know from other events and I’m meeting new ones too.”
Two races also for the Hansa 2.3. Yui Fujimoto (JPN) continues to top the scoreboard. With a worst result of third in Race 5 used as her drop, she kept up the momentum and won Race 6. Fujimoto is all business.
The Japanese have a stranglehold in the class. Daisuke Zenju and Koji Harada remain second and third overall. In winning Race 5, Zenju is just three points behind Fujimoto now.
In the SKUD18, nobody has been able to stop Paralympic triple medallist, Daniel Fitzgibbon and his team mate, Chris Somers (AUS) who have a clean sheet. Two more were sailed today and the pair were in the enviable position of using a win as their drop.
Nobody has managed to put a dent in the scores of Neil Rowsthorn and Jack Wallace or Naomi Ohue and Joe Thompson either, so they remain second and third respectively.
“We got passed in both races today, so it’s been tight to the end,” Fitzgibbon admitted. “We might be winning, but the young fellas and old campaigners are all having their moments.
“It was so shifty today. We got off to a very good lead, but at the wing mark, we fell into a massive hole. People sailed around us and there was nothing we could do. We had to fight our way back and we did and linked it all up.
“The second race was more consistent, but on the whole, it was a lot trickier than the other day. We had maybe 8-10 knots and it was fairly due east coming over the land.”
There was much buzz around the inclement weather forecast for the weekend.
Addressing the issue, Principal Race Officer, Megan Kensington, said: “We’ve considered over long chats. The information we’ve been given is that it looks like it won’t be so bad on Saturday, but Sunday looks bad.
“We’ll run the 303 One Person class, as scheduled, tomorrow. We will then revisit the weekend and look at the possibility of running an extra race on Saturday and also look at the possibility of starting racing earlier on Sunday.”
A total of nine races are scheduled for each class and racing will take place every day until the final races on Sunday 30th March. The Closing Ceremony and Presentation will follow the last race.
The Worlds take in the Hansa World and International Championships, Australian and NSW Hansa Class Championships plus the Para World Championships.
Seventeen nations are competing at the Championships hosted by at Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (RPAYC) on Pittwater in NSW: Australia, Chile, Brazil, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain and USA.
For all information on the event, including entries, please visit: https://hansaworlds.org/
For all information on RPAYC and its facilities, please visit: https://rpayc.com.au/
By Di Pearson/Hansa Worlds
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