The common phrase around the boat park at the Hyeres Olympic Classes Regatta in France this afternoon (Tuesday, 20 April 1999) was that anybody could have got it wrong, and some did. Yesterdays fresh winds were replaced by a 10 knot breeze this morning which had died away to a shifty 4-5 knot breeze by late this afternoon making for extremely tricky sailing conditions.
One of the three 49er fleets had to suffer the frustration of sailing four races but only counting two as their time limit expired on the first two when the leaders were only minutes away from the finishing line. The fleet was still racing early this evening.
On the Laser course, Andrew Simpson, who had been in fifth this morning drops to 17th, after posting a 19,21 scoreline, although he is still within the limits of a place in the Gold fleet. “In the first race I thought I was over and went back and in the second I had a good start but just got buried. I still should be okay but its wasting valuable points” said Andrew.
Like Simpson, Ben Ainslie also had problems on the start line when a jury boat which went up to the start line five seconds before the gun to give another competitor a yellow flag nudged Ainslie’s boat head to wind by mistake. He recovered to third in that race and is now ninth overall with Australian Michael Blackburn leading the pack. “I think everyone was up and down today, you can’t be at the top all the time” said Ben.
Two times Olympian Shirley Robertson posted a 2nd and a 16th the Europe fleet and is now 6th overall. The fleet is still being dominated by Dutch girl Margriet Matthijsse, who is fighting for Olympic selection.
Andy Beadsworth, Barry Parkin and Richard Sydenham are still on target for the top eight to make the cut for the match racing as their 26th and 6th in today’s two races leaves them in 6th overall with another day of fleet racing tomorrow.
FRANCE: Hyeres Olympic Classes Regatta (after day three): 470 women (after 6 races):
1, Stephanie Trubel and Carol Grosser (Ger) 9,DNC,7,1,4,11 – 32pts
2, Shani Kedmi and Anat Fabrikant (Isr) 6,11,6,23,3,6 – 32pts
3, Susanne and Michaela Ward (Den) 5,8,10,7,8,5 – 33pts British
Placings:
17, Helena Lucas and Sue Parkin – 22,17,19,20,11,7 – 74pts
18, Katie Nurton and Barbara Watson – 14,16,16,11,20,40 – 77pts
20, Bethan Raggatt and Sarah Webb – 20,13,8,18,30,29 – 88pts
21, Severine Rees Jones and Inga Leask – 1,20,29,15,29,44 – 94pts
31, Jessie and Sally Cuthbert – 21,35,35,DNC,24,27 – 142pts
49er class (after 2 races)
1, Marc Audineau and Julian Farnarier (Fra) 1,1 – 2pts =1, Michael Hestbaek and Jonatan Persson (Den) 1,1 – 2pts
3, Alfonso Domingos and Diogo Cayolla (Por) 1,4 – 5pts
British Placings:
=5, Alister Richardson and Peter Greenhalgh – 4,3 – 7pts
7, Andy and Ian Budgen – 3,4 – 7pts
16, Tim Robinson and Zeb Elliot – 6,6 – 12pts
26, David Lenz and Mark Nicholls – 9,11 – 20pts
30, Ian Barker and Simon Hiscocks – DNF,2 – 27pts
35, Paul Brotherton and Steven Jobson – 10,21 – 31pts
46, Richard Lovering and Harvey Hillary – 13,DNF – 38pts
Soling (after 5 races):
1, Jochen Schuemann and Ingo Borkowski and Gunnar Bahr (Ger) 4,5,2,2,2 – 10pts
2, Roy Heiner and Dirk De Ridder and H Blakskjaer (Ned) DNC,2,1,1,9 – 13pts
3, Sergei Pichugin and Vladimir Korotkovs and S Timohov (Ukr) 13,1,3,5,4 – 13pts
British Placings:
6, Andy Beadsworth and Richard Sydenham and Barry Parkin -2,14,5,26,6 – 27pts
29, Hamish Mackay and Mike Hall and Andy Lawson – 18,DNC,DNC,22,30 – 101pts
Tornado class (after 4 races)
1, Roman Hagara and Hans P Steinacher (Aut) 4,2,2,2 – 6pts
2, Darren Bundock and John Forbes (Aus) 2,1,5,13 – 8pts
3, Mitch Booth and Andrew Landenberger (Aus) 1,3,6,6 – 10pts
British Placings:
11, Hugh Styles and Steve Lovegrove – 18,7,33,8 – 33pts
17, John Pierce and Barry Roche – 7,11,25,24 – 42pts
25, Tim Reid