27 January 2008

Yngling Women Worlds Warm Up

This Olympic year will begin with a bang for the Women keelboat sailors with two exciting and important events, the Yngling Women’s Worlds, February 8 to 16, preceded by the Miami OCR, January 27 to February 2 on Biscayne Bay, which is one of the worlds best sailing venues.

This will be a gathering of some of the Worlds best women sailors with 28 teams from 19 countries and four Olympic gold medalists entered so far. Although ten countries plus China have already qualified for Quingdao in Cascais, ISAF Sailing World Championship there are still four places to be decided and the competition among the remaining countries represented will be fierce. Even for those countries who have qualified, many have not yet selected their Olympic Yngling team. For those that have qualified, such as Holland which has four contenders, China and Russia with two, the competition may be more to demonstrate their superiority over their national rivals, than to win the regatta. However, the really interesting problem remains for the two competitors from Canada, France and Greece which still need to qualify. Will their priority be to cooperate and qualify their country in competition with Denmark, Japan, Italy, Norway and Ukraine? Or to sail tactically to make sure they are selected nationally? These sailors, even if they qualify also have to meet their national criteria in order to be sent by their countries.

Thus the racing will be highly competitive throughout the whole fleet and not just at the top. Many of the sailors have been training in Palma and elsewhere and will be sailing new boats for the first time in serious competition, while others will be testing new gear and sails.

The battle for the remaining four Olympic berths will be between Sarah Berry and Tine Moberg-Parker for Canada, Tine Palludan of Denmark, Anne-Claire Berry and Anne Le Helle for France, Sofia Bekatorou and Altani Danezi sailing for Greece, Yumiko Shige of Japan, Chiara Calligaris for Italy, Siren Sundby of Norway, and Mariia Dolynska of Ukraine. With two Olympic Gold medalists in this group the competition will be challenging.

 

GBR 12. The “British Blondes” Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson are the current World Champions, have five wins and placed in the top 3 of all their 2007 Yngling regattas. Sarah Ayton was a competitive Europe sailor before she teamed up with Shirley Robertson and Sarah Webb to win Gold in Athens, so this team is clearly one of the favorites and will be out to continue their winning ways.

 

 

 

GBR 17. Shirley Robertson with her new team of Annie Lush and Lucy Macgregor are the other British team. Shirley won Gold in the Europe in Sydney and again in Ynglings in Athens. Since then she has become the mother of twins, which meant that this Olympic campaign started late, and to her great disappointment I am sure, the British selectors already chose her Athens team mates “the Sarahs” for Quingdao. So this team has no pressure but will be out to prove the selectors made a mistake! They and the Sarahs are sailing boats from Petticrows, the new builder of Ynglings and it will be interesting to see how they perform.

 

 

 

USA 337     Team 7 with Sally Barkow, Carrie Howe and Debbie Capozzi are probably the team which has sailed together the longest and have a long string of success behind them in both fleet and match racing. They won the princess Sophia in 2007 and will be defending their title at the Miami OCR. However they also match race and recently won the Santa Maria, Trentino and Brazil Women’s Cups, so will be a threat in close quarters  racing and boat handling. Sally has just been elected US woman sailor of the year for the second time.

 

 

GER 261 Ulrike Schuemann and her crew although never quite reaching their potential are third on the ISAF Yngling ranking list which attests to their consistency, and this year may be their year to shine. They also match race so will be at home in the close quarters racing typical of the Yngling.

 

 

 

RUS 4 and RUS 8. These two teams of Anna Basalkina, Vladislava Ukraintseva with Ekaterina Maximova and Ekaterina Skudina with Diana Krutskikh and Natalia Ivanova have been battling each other and knocking at the door for some time. Anna won the Holland regatta in 2006 and was second to Ekaterina’s third at Ekaterina Maximova, Vladislava Ukraintseva and  Anna Basalkina the 2007 Open Championships. Ekaterina won the Europeans and Hyeres in 2007 and was 8 in Athens, and has a habit of winning the medal race. However although Ekaterina has been top of the ISAF world ranking Anna is currently two places ahead of her.  This will be a battle royal as both teams are vying for selection and they represent St Petersburg and Moscow.

RUS 8 Ekaterina Skudina, Natali Krutskikh and Natalia Ivanova

RUS4 Anna Basalkina, Vladislava Ukraintseva with Ekaterina Maximova.

The Dutch have four teams competing and are a major force to be reckoned with. The National team has nine members who are rotated through the three boats NED 1, NED 11 and NED111, their game plan being somewhat akin to that for AC crews. In recent events Mandy Mulder has performed well, coming second at the Breitling and European championships in 2007 and just missing the podium in Cascais, but nothing is certain and Renee Groeneveld, with a second at the 2007 test event in Quingdao, and Janneke Hin will be formidable competitors.

                      However the Dutch have a dark horse in Annelies Thies, NED 350 who was their representative in Athens where she just missed the podium, and so is keen to have another shot. However, she took some time off to have a family and is now making a late charge. She had some bad luck, being holed in one race, and then dismasted in another collision at the open Worlds in 2007, but her team had the boat repaired overnight and was ready to fight again, so watch out.

NED 350  Annilies Thies

 

GRE 7. Sofia Bekatorou, Sofia Papadopoulou and Christina Charamountani, are  a relatively new team on the Yngling scene, and have not yet shown the brilliance of Sofia’s world dominance of the 470 class, where she won Gold in Athens and 4 World championships. Sofia also sails in big boats, match races, and having had the winter to become familiar with the Yngling will be a formidable threat.

 

 

 

 

 

NOR 406 Siren Sundby comes from a sailing family with her brother sailing 49ers, and was the Gold medal winner in the Europe class at Athens, so comes along the same track as Shirley Roberson, and may just repeat her performance, a challenge to be reckoned with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ESP 3  Monica Azon, the 2006 World champion, Miami OCR winner and North American Champion, so is obviously familiar with the conditions in Miami and finds them to her liking. Monica came from the 470 class and has been sailing Ynglings since 2001 so has the experience to mount a serious challenge.

 

 

 

 

 IYA 2008