Results / World Championships Aquavitesse, The Netherlands - 02/08/2015

RS500 World Championships 2015, overview of the week.

Daily Reports

The 2015 RS500 Worlds, hosted by Aquavitesse in The Netherlands, is off to a flying start.  With an amazing entry just under 70 boats, with 8 competing nationals, the fleets were split into 4 flights for the first time, and a qualifying series of 4 races was held over the first 2 days.

Day one was light (and amazingly hot & sunny), and only one race could be comleted before the wind switched off completely and we were all towed in.   The Dutch Party was the usual fun and frolics, with a heart-warming opening ceremony, those terrible red, white & blue drinks, and DJ Henk keeping us dancing.

Day 2 - sunny and hot agan, but this time with a fine F3, and the 3 scheduled races were held, providing a qualifying series and allowing the fleets to be split into gold and silver for the rest of the Championship.

Pete Barton & Heather Chipperfield lead the field counting 3 firsts in the qualifying series, with Peter & James Curtis just behind with 1,1,2.

Today the sun is waiting for us to launch to show itslef, and the wind has piped up to F4.   3 good races to come ... then the Brit Party!

Day 3

 

Day 3 brought some uproar to the RS 500 Worlds. With finally some serious wind, everybody was woken from their light wind sleeps. Capsizes were all over the place and the windy conditions also had its effects on the leaderboard. The light wind specialized Italians had their troubles and fell down while some Dutch and Swedish boats proofed to be specialists in “strong” (still just about 14 knots) conditions. The Brits Peter and Heather are still in the lead, but they saw competition getting closer with “meagre” results at the end of the day (4 and 8).

 

In the silver fleet the competition is perhaps even tighter. There are lots of contenders for the silver fleet prize although the Dutch Marieke and Richard (our hosts from Aquavitesse) appear to be the strongest bet at this moment.

 

Tomorrow probably will be an entirely different day again with forecasts of relatively light winds. Our only hope against the Italians coming back is probably the British party tonight. They are bringing a 2 manned steeldrum band and lots of drinks, perhaps enough to upset the Italians and hand them a hangover on Wednesday.

 

 

Dag 3

 

Op dag 3 is er weer genoeg gebeurd op het WK RS 500. Een dag die eindelijk wat serieuze wind bracht waardoor iedereen wakker werd geschud uit zijn of haar lichte wind slaap. Veel boten om in de harde wind en ook een klassement dat zichtbaar op zijn kop werd gezet. Waar we eerst nog bijvoorbeeld de Italianen sterk zagen varen, bleken het nu meer de Zweden en de Nederlanders die gespecialiseerd bleken in “hardere” wind (een nog prima te overziene 14 knopen). Op dit moment staan de Britten Peter en Heather nog 1^e, maar hun competitie komt dichterbij na een “magere” 4 en 8 aan het eind van de dag.

In de zilveren floot is de competitie wellicht nog spannender, veel boten die meedoen voor plekken in de top 5. Op dit moment lijken onze gastheren Marieke en Richard (van Aquavitesse) nog de beste gok als je dan toch ergens je geld op moet zetten.

 

Morgen wordt het waarschijnlijk weer een hele andere dag met op dit moment een voorspelling van relatief lichte wind. Onze enige hoop tegen de Italianen is dan wellicht de British Party vanavond. Ze hebben beloofd een uit 2 man bestaande steeldrum band te brengen en dat aan te vullen met ruimte voorraden aan drank. Wellicht verliest de Italiaanse coach voor een moment de grip op zijn zeilers en eindigen ze allemaal met katers.

 

Anneke Kikkert

 

Day 5

 

The last day of the World Series started when a loud horn sounded ashore. Due to a lack of wind, the first start, which was scheduled for 10:55, would be postponed for at least an hour. All the flags in the harbour were still hanging still when another hour was added to the delay. However, around 11:30, the flags began waving, indicating that the predicted wind had finally started to blow. At noon, a final decision about the races for the day would be made, but telling all the competitors proved to be unnecassary. A steady wind had come up and all the sailors were ready to get onto the water.

The gold fleet started two hours later than scheduled and sailed three races today. Racing in the gold fleet turned out to be very competitive. Large amounts of boats arrived at the marks at the same time and everyone was close together. The battle between first and second place was also a very serious one, between Malin Broberg and Johan Rook (SWE 112) and Peter Barton and Heather Chipperfield (GBR 1015). Due to an unlucky OCS from the Swedish team, the overall victory was claimed by Heather and Peter. Congratulations!

The silver fleet sailed two races today, which were also quite competitive. In this fleet, more boats had difficulties with the winds, which resulted in some capsized boats. Even though the boats were more spreaded across the field, the racing was taken very seriously and everyone gave it their all.

Back ashore, the event was concluded with the price giving, hosted by Michiel. Prices were given for "fun winners", which included for example the "faithfull dog award" and the "most epic moment caught on camera". I think it is safe to say that it has been a very satisfying week for all the sailors and all the volunteers, to whom I would like to say a big thank you. See you all next year!

 

Final results below, with fleet divided into Gold & Silver.