Allianz Sailing World Championships: KISS, keep it simple Sweden

A year ago, the Swedish 49erFX team were in tears as they missed out on winning the World Championship to the Dutch. That was on the flat waters of St Margarets Bay in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler are back to see if they can win that elusive world title on the much lumpier waters of The Hague. And a stellar performance on day two of the competition launched the smiling Swedes into first place overall.

After three wins from three races, Bobeck was having to pinch herself at what she and Netzler had just achieved.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had three bullets in a day before, definitely not at a world championship,” grinned Bobeck modestly.

The performance came as a bit of a surprise, even for a team renowned for their strong wind prowess.

“It was a bit of a surprise because we haven’t sailed so much this year and we have had very few sailing hours together, and especially leading up to this event. So we weren’t quite sure how we would line up against the fleet.”

It’s been a difficult season with a couple of major setbacks due to injury.

“Rebecca had a back injury which kept her away from the water from February until late May. Then we had two training blocks in Marseille and then the Paris 2024 Test Event.

“On the final day of the Test Event I injured my knee. So that took away the training camp leading up to this World Championship.”

That is far from ideal preparation in a tender, frisky skiff like the 49erFX which requires constant sailing to maintain muscle memory and familiarity with the boat. Even in adversity, however, there are always silver linings to be found.

“The lack of sailing time, it makes us keep reminding ourselves to do the simple stuff right. Not to take big risks but try to keep low scores during the qualifiers to put us in a good position going into the finals,” says Bobeck.

An example of less risk is at the starts, where Bobeck has been concentrating harder on what she calls “space management”, creating valuable space between themselves and rival boats on the busy start line.

Space gives them the opportunity to hit the start at full speed and let the boat rip, as skiff sailors like to say.

“Also being careful at the mark roundings, which are easy to get wrong in all this current, so just playing things a little safer than usual,” adds Bobeck.

The chemistry between Bobeck and Netzler is clearly very strong. They are great friends off the water as well as showing enormous mutual respect for each other’s skills. It’s rare for them to have a cross word for each other, although Netzler admits she had a a moment at the Test Event just a month ago.

“We had a situation as we were heading towards the leeward gate at the bottom of the course,” Netzler recalls.

She thought they had already agreed they were going for a straightforward, no-frills gennaker drop, keeping it simple.

She says: “All of a sudden I hear we’re going to do a double-gybe drop, in 16 knots, something we hadn’t had a chance to practise for a long time.

“So for me it came as a surprise, because I thought we were in a nice position in the race and didn’t need to try anything too hard. So the emotions go up, but I had to hold on to it until the end of the race.

“Then between the races I just had to let it out, so I said, I’m sorry for what I’m about to say, and then I said what I needed to say, but making sure it was directly personally at Vilma. I needed to do that to be able to refocus for the next race.”

Perhaps that moment of madness was in the back of their minds as the Swedes charged around a minefield of a race course that was ready to trip them up at any moment. No explosions this time, though, no double-gybe drops. Just the basics, well executed.