World Youth Championships

by SailRaceWin

The Takapuna Worlds, just completed off Auckland's North Shore, saw a series of World Championships for Olympic classes (RS:X, Tornados and Laser Radials). Under ISAF regulations, the Youth events were not classified as World Championships as such, but provided up and coming young sailors the chance to compete in their own event as well as the senior, actual, Worlds.

The Volvo Youth Worlds 2008 take place in Aarhus, on the east coast of Jutland, Denmark, in July. Each country will select a team to represent it in the different classes competing, which include the Laser Radial. Medals are awarded for each class event and there are overall team prizes from the combined results across all classes.

Australia won the 2007 Youth Worlds overall, with Denmark second and the New Zealand team coming in third. On home 'turf', the Danes are looking to improve on their results, but the Kiwis have shown that they are a force to be reckoned with and have their sights set on Gold!

The image above shows the prizewinners from the Female Youth event in Laser Radials at the Takapuna Worlds 2008 - won by the Aussies (Gabrielle King) on a tie break count-back from New Zealand (Cushla Hume-Merry) and with Denmark (Sarah Gunni) in third place.

Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships 2008

Count-back decider of Womens Youth Title

by Marc Hill (Coach to Cushla Hume-Merry, NZL, pictured above)

What a day!

Cushla had to be able to drop a 6th and Gabrielle King (AUS) had to get two 1sts to win the Championships.

Racing was in moderate wind, 12-14 knots, oscillating steadily plus/minus 10 degrees, with a bit of a set from the previous day.

Gabrielle took it to the fleet and made it two firsts, sailing assertively, building a big lead on the first downwind leg in race one and never being challenged. Cushla finished 6th, which was a position that unfortunately needed to be dropped.

The second race took place in similar conditions. Gabrielle first to the top mark again, on a shortened 0.8 mile beat, and steadily consolidated her lead over Cushla. The next group of Sarah Gunni (DEN), Annalise Murphy (IRL), who was going much better towards end of series, Mathilde de Kerangat (FRA), who had an excellent
start and first beat in race 7, and the leading British sailor, Chloe Martin, stayed together and were steadily drawing away from the rest of the fleet.



Cushla ended up on equal points with Gabrielle, who won the series on the tie breaker.

The championships saw excellent racing and much was learnt. The top half dozen sailors are certainly ones to watch out for in future.

Cushla Hume-Merry

Final Day: Mens and Youth Laser Radial Worlds

by Olivia and Sarah Powrie

The final day of racing showed similar conditions to what the sailors have experienced all week, fifteen knot north-easterlies with a reasonable swell, making it another easy day for the race committee to get all races away.

Canadian Michael Leigh had another top day today with a first and second placing to prove again why he has finished top of the Men’s fleet. Brad Funk (USA) came in a very comfortable second with a fourteen point gap over third place, taken by Simon Morgan (AUS) after having another consistent day to finish up on forty points.

Andy Maloney (NZL) has comfortably taken out the Youth Men’s title, cruising to a seven point lead ahead of Martin Evans (GBR). Max Moerman Maarten (NED) fought his way back to finish in third place.

In the Youth female contest, the title came down to the last race between Gabrielle King (AUS) and Cushla Hume-Merry (NZL). Gabrielle finishing first and Cushla second, secured the title for Gabrielle on a count back. Sarah Gunni (DEN) had third and ninth placings in the races today to hold onto third place.

Final Results

Mens Laser Radial Worlds
1st CAN Leigh, Michael 15pts (2) 2 1 1 1 1 2 (10) 2 2 1 2
2nd USA Funk, Brad 24pts 1 3 2 2 5 2 (72 DNC) (7) 3 1 4 1
3rd AUS Morgan, Simon 40pts 7 (72 BFD) 5 3 2 4 6 (38) 1 4 3 5 1
4th NZL (Under 21) Sandall, James 49pts 6 1 (13) 7 9 5 1 1 5 (13) 7 7
5th AUS (Under 21) Burman, James 54pts (18) 4 6 4 4 (11) 8 5 4 3 8 8

Mens Youth Laser Radials
1st NZL Maloney, Andrew 25.0 3 1 1 1 3 (ocs) 1 4 2 2 (14) 7
2nd GBR Evans, Martin 32.0 10 (12) 1 2 3 1 2 4 3 5 (12) 1
3rd NED Moerman, Maarten Max 34.0 (20) 9 2 4 1 2 3 (14) 5 1 4 3
4th AUS Burton, Tom 37.0 10 (bfd) 3 3 2 1 6 6 1 3 (20) 2
5th NZL Meech, Sam 39.0 6 2 2 6 (11) 6 1 (34) 4 7 1 4

Womens Youth Laser Radials
1st AUS King, Gabrielle 20.0pts (4) 1 1 (7) 4 2 1 2 4 3 1 1
2nd NZL Hume-Merry, Cushla 20.0pts 2 2 2 1 (6) 1 2 (17) 1 1 6 2
3rd DEN Gunni, Sarah 34.0pts 1 (bfd) 3 2 5 4 3 (13) 2 2 3 9
4th FRA de Kerangat, Mathilde 48.0pts (11) 3 7 (11) 7 3 5 1 6 5 8 3
5th IRL Murphy, Annalise 49.0pts (17) 4 6 4 3 9 4 (18) 5 4 5 5

Takapuna Worlds