Long day for young sailors

Tuesday 13 July 2010, 15:00 GMT

250 boats were rigged in the dinghy park in the blazing Istanbul sun early on the morning of the second day of the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship, waiting for a sea breeze to form.

Competitors had to wait until 16:30hrs local time for the breeze to fill in and then when the start gun fired, the fleet sailed into the late afternoon sunshine to try and complete at least one race. The breeze was around seven knots on the three courses but it remained puffy and made for a long day on the water for both the race officials trying to set the courses and for the several hundred young sailors.

The RS:X boys and girls and the 29ers did complete two races but the Laser Radials, the SL 16 cats and the 420 boys and girls only managed one race.

RSX

Sailing in the light and shifty conditions, yesterday's leader Ofir Halevy (ISR) continued to show a clear pair of heels to her opponents, scoring a first and a third to open up a comfortable six point lead. She has now won three out of four races. Charalambia Antonatou of Greece also had a good day with a win and a second to jump into second overall.

Four time Olympic medallist Alessandra Sensini (ITA), watching from a coach boat commented, "There was quite a bit of current on the course, it was gusty and shifty, it was very important to get a good start and choose the right side of the course."

The young windsurfers had to work very hard, almost constantly pumping their sails to push their boards around the course. In the boy's division Wonwoo Cho of Korea was joined at the top of the scoreboard by Mateo Sanz of Spain to be level on 10 points. RS:X Youth European bronze medallist Omer Sofer of Israel holds onto third spot.

420

The two 420 classes had the farthest distance to travel to get to their start and after a number of course changes, only managed one race in the fading breeze, returning under tow after dark at 21:00 hrs local time.

Austrians Lara Vadlau and Hannah Hanke came second to take the lead in the 420 girls, whilst Linda Fahrhi and Maja Siegenthalter of Switzerland hold onto their second spot with the French girls Maelenn Lemaitre and Aloise Retornaz advancing up the leader board to take third spot on the podium.

There was no real change in the top section of the 420 boy's division with Japan's Hiroki Yamaguchi and Tetsuya Isozaki holding onto their lead three points ahead of the Spanish crew of Jordi Xammar and Joan Herp and the Portuguese pairing Jao Villas Boas and Tomas Camelo.

SL16

In the SL16 Open multihull event one of the pre-event medal favourites, Chase Lurati and Paul Darmanin of Australia have taken a narrow lead with consistent placings from the Danish pair Daniel Bjornholt and Nicolaj Bjornholt and the French team of Antoine Dljou and Guillaume le Croq.

29er

The 29ers sailed their two races closer to the shore and, having completed five races, are able to discard their worst result. This has had an effect on the overall placings with the USA crew of Antoine Screve and James Moody dropping a 15th in race three and counting top three positions in all their other races. Gael Jaffrezic and Julien Bloyet (FRA) won the first race of the day and followed up with a second in race two to keep the pressure on the Americans.

Gael Jaffrezic explained, "We went to the pool to relax until we were called to go out. We had to concentrate hard during the race. It was difficult because it was very shifty. If we are down in around 10th place or higher we have to focus to find ways to overtake the fleet."

Laser Radial

In the Laser boy's class the local local nation's representative Levent Ahiskali (TUR) has opened up a commanding lead with a second in the only race of the day. Herman Tomasgaard (NOR) started well and held the lead all around the course to win today's race and jump from 10th to second overall while Ard Van Aanholt all the way from Netherlands Antilles claims the bronze position.

Apart from Ahiskali most of the sailors counted a double digit placing so the testing conditions are obviously proving tough for the biggest fleet on the racecourse.

Tomasgaard explained his improvement today; "I like light winds - I go fast because I am light in weight. I had a really good start and the right side of the course looked good so I took it and led the fleet around the top mark. I just needed to cover the fleet."

The Laser girls had a very close finish in their only race of the day with a big bunch of boats crossing the finish line at the same time, keeping the race officials on their toes. Despite finishing 20th today, Chiarra Steinmuller (GER) holds onto a narrow lead from Michelle Broekhuizen (NED) who jumps up from eighth yesterday.

The biggest surprise of the day was the winner of today's race, Maria Cristina Boabaid from Florianopolis in Brazil who won having recorded a 35th and 15th in the first two races yesterday.

Maria explains, "I started well to round the first mark in second and just had to chase down the other competitors. It was light and shifty but I like these conditions, they are similar to where I sail at home and I hope for the same after the layday tomorrow."

Tuesday is a lay day with a boat trip to Bosphorus planned. Racing resumes on Wednesday with another three races scheduled for all fleets.

Race tracking is used for a different fleet each day and can be viewed at: www.onlineracetrack.net.

For results and more details on the 2010 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship visit: www.isafyouthworlds.com