SailJuice Blog

Camille Lecointre and Mathilde Geron finish in 2nd overall after day
one of the 470 Europeans, and then this happens just as they’re coming
ashore. Freak wave wipes out their boat, swamping it.

Posted via email from SailJuice News

It was a crazy, confusing day at the 2010 Open 470 European Championships in Istanbul, yet somehow Gideon Kliger and Eran Sela emerged from their side of the men’s qualifying with two first places.

The Israeli team made sense of the light, patchy and shifty conditions that left most of the 92 teams quite bewildered. The day dawned 10 degrees colder than previous days, the blazing hot Turkish weather replaced by a rainy, blustery, grey day that made some competitors wonder if they had been teleported back to Weymouth in England, where many of these same Olympic athletes were competing just two weeks ago.

As August gave way to September, and summer gave way to autumn, it looked as though the 470s would be battling their way round the course in some fierce conditions. Yet

Photo: © Francois Richard – Daniel Zepuntke & Dustin Baldewein clinched bronze in La Rochelle

Just 10 metres decided who would win the bronze medal of the 470 Junior European Championships, and who would win leather. Leather, a kind way of saying ‘nothing’, the dreaded fourth place for which there is no room on the podium.

Moving ahead on the final lap of the Medal Race, Daniel Zepuntke and Dustin Baldewein of Germany edged out local La Rochelle team, Kevin Peponnet and Julien Lebrun, crossing two boatlengths ahead of the French. The two teams finished equal on overall points but that superior Medal Race finish earned bronze for the Germans.

It was a great ending to a week that had started disastrously for Zepuntke and Baldewein who were disqualified for infringing another boat

Photo: © Francois Richard: 470s enjoying better conditions earlier this week

Tim Elsner and Oliver Szymanski were one of a number of German teams who made a lucky escape after today’s final Gold Fleet race was abandoned at the 470 Junior European Championships in La Rochelle today.

The German coach had gathered a number of the German squad for some tuning and rig set-up before the start of this afternoon’s race. Too late, they realised that they had sailed a long way above the start line with just five minutes to the start gun. They set spinnakers to try and get back to start in time, but with the current pushing them back upwind, returning to the line seemed to take an eternity.

In competitive terms, it really was an eternity as the

BBC cameras were invited behind the scenes into the Skandia Team GBR camp for an exclusive tour of the new team accommodation just metres away from the Olympic venue where Shirley Robertson – herself a double Olympic gold medallist – discovers the systems the British team have put in place in order to have the best chance of winning medals.  She met Skandia Team GBR’s newest support crew member, falconer Brian Williams, who with his birds of prey at six o’clock in the morning take on the dawn chorus of local seagulls in a bid to provide the sailors with their last hours of valuable sleep!!!!

This is one of the reasons why you absolutely must see Part 1 of “Olympic Sailing”, which will air this Saturday, 21 August at 1300 on BBC 1.

Sofian Bouvet and Jérémie Mion fired in two more bullets at the 470 Junior European Championships in La Rochelle today. Out of 11 races, the French sailors have scored 10 wins and are discarding a second place. In this high quality, 86-boat fleet made up of some of the best young sailors in the world, they have sealed championship victory with two days to spare.

Bouvet was not celebrating yet however. “We want to race tomorrow and we must race in the Medal Race on Friday,” said the reigning 470 World and European Junior Champion. “This is our last championship at junior level and also the director of sport from the FFV (French Sailing Federation) will be coming to watch us in the Medal Race.”

A year ago Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell burst on to the 470 stage by winning a silver medal at the 470 World Championships in Denmark. Having only sailed together for five days, it was easy to think this might just have been a flash in the pan, a bit of beginner's luck. Actually, in their own different ways, Patience and Bithell have been grafting away on the Olympic circuit for some time but it wasn't until they got together that sparks began to fly.

© Richard Langdon/ Skandia Team GBR

At this year's Worlds in Holland, the British team looked set to repeat their podium performance and were in contention for winning the regatta when a broken rudder ended their medal hopes. 

However they turned in a strong comeback performance at Skandia

Sudden illness for 2nd placed Berenger Balzeau took him out of racing at the 470 Junior European Championships today, with the local sailor from La Rochelle having to make an unexpected visit to hospital.

His crew Mathieu Fountaine hoped that they would be back on the water again tomorrow, but admitted his hopes for winning this regatta were now gone. With Gold Fleet racing starting today, the French team had been hoping to fight for the lead in the championship. “It was a shame not to race today,” said Fountaine, “but at least Berenger seems to be better. Unfortunately for us the race committee decided to hold an extra race this afternoon, so we have three DNC scores. Maybe we can still make it

With six wins from six races, Sofian Bouvet and Jérémie Mion have dominated the opposition thus far in the 470 Junior European Championships. However tomorrow we will see how good the French really are once the 86 boats in Blue and Yellow qualifying groups have been reorganised into Gold and Silver groups for the finals.

Bouvet said he didn’t feel fast upwind today. Heaven help the other sailors if he finds the boatspeed button. “Upwind speed was not good, and understanding the wind today was very difficult,” said the sailor from Brest. “But it was important to win the group because now we go into the final and it is much easier to score bad results there.”

With a discard in the scores, Bouvet and Mion’s dominance amounts to just a 4-point advantage over

Photo: © Francois Richard

Lovely breeze in La Rochelle again for day 2 of the 470 Junior European Championships, but there were more scowls than smiles among the girls today.

With a total of 86 boats in the fleet, the battle in qualifying is to make it into the top 43, ensuring a place in the Gold Fleet finals. Currently only one girls’ team is comfortably making the cut, Annika Bochmann and Anika Lorenz in 27th overall. The German team who won this event two years ago were all smiles today, scoring 11,8 in the Blue Group. “We learned our lessons from yesterday, and set up our boat better today,” said Lorenz.

Behind them is a gaggle of girls’ teams hovering on the cusp of qualifying: Lisa Panuschka/ Esther Schwich (GER) in 40th; Frances