World Class Racing at the Yngling Worlds in Maimi
11 February, Miami, USA
State of the art racing at the Yngling Worlds
No less than four of the boats in the Yngling fleet own a Gold Medal from the Olympic games in Athens 2004. There are numerous World and Continental Champions from the Yngling and other classes. In fact all female gold medallists from Athens (except RSX) are right now sailing in the Yngling Worlds.
The scene was set for world class sailing with 15-18 knots building a moderate chop in the green water of Biscayne Bay. Spectators, organisers, officials and coaches enjoyed watching the wonderful show of racing and from more than one boat a grunt was heard that they wished they were racing themselves.
World Class Racing at the Yngling Worlds in Maimi
The shifts were more even over the course compared to yesterday and even if most wind shifts were not very big there were many of them. The fact that Ynglings are very similar boat in terms of speed made the race be a mind game of strategy and tactics.
The GBR team of Sarah AYTON, Sarah WEBB and Pippa WILSON keeps the lead with a third and a second on today’s races. A coach commented that ‘it’s about keeping the number of mistakes to a minimum’. The British team just managed to be on the right side of a shift most of the time and on the inside lane up to layline.
Krystal WEIR, Carol GOJNICH and Angela FARRELL (AUS) ranked second in the regatta after two race days.
A surprise in this regatta is the performance of the Australian team of Krystal WEIR, Carol GOJNICH and Angela FARRELL. The helmswoman, Krystal, has spent only 8 weeks in the boat and is replacing Nicola BETHWAITE who was helming the boat when the team qualified Australia for the Olympics got tragically injured in a biking accident. Krystal WEIR was runner up to sail the Laser Radial at the Olympics and also has a Radial World Championship title. With a series of 4-6-2-3 the Australians are currently ranked second in the Worlds. The Australian Coach, Adrian FINGLAS, comments that ‘it has been a tough 8 weeks and the plan has all along been to keep it simple, sail your own race, don’t get into close fights with other teams and focus on the basics’. Something that is obviously working very good for the Australian team.
The winners of race 4 at the Yngling Worlds, Ulrike SCHUEMANN, Julia BLECK and Ute HOEPFNER (GER)
The Race Winners of today's first race were Anna BASALKINA, Vladislava UKRAINTSEVA and Ekaterina MAXIMOVA (RUS). The second race was won by the German team of Ulrike SCHUEMANN, Julia BLECK and ute HOEPFNER.
Full results can be found at the Event Website.
Note: This text and images can be used with reference to yngling.org