High-wind double win for British 49er

James Grummett and Rhos Hawes put on a high-wind masterclass on day two of the 49er World Championship in Quiberon, France. Battling through breeze gusting over 25 knots, the British team won both of their heats in the yellow group of qualifying. Keanu Prettner and Jakob Flachberger didn’t have such a strong day as their opening three races in lighter wind, but the Austrians’ 8,4 scores from yellow group were sufficient for them to cling on to the overall lead.

Grummet enjoyed a close tussle with Germans Jakob Meggendorfer and Andreas Spranger. “We were basically glued to them for that whole last race. We came off the start line next to them, tacked with them, and came downwind with them,” said Grummet. “They actually got us on the first downwind, and we just traded places the whole way around. They are quite good mates of ours, so it was a fun battle. In those conditions it’s a balance of trying to manage how much you survive versus how hard you can actually race when it’s that windy.”

With the breeze increasing throughout the afternoon, the race committee sent the three 49er group fleets back to shore before things got worse. “By the time they called it, conditions were definitely getting marginal,” said Hawes. “They could have pushed for one more, I think, but it was turning into survival racing. There were quite a few boats capsizing; it was the kind of day where you could capsize and still get a top-eight finish. It was a classic 49er race.”

Further across the bay competing in red group were Seb Schneiter and Arno de Planta who also enjoyed the tough conditions. Fresh from getting a fourth place at the SailGP event in Bermuda on the weekend, the Swiss won their first race and were second in the next. This was good enough to lift them to second overall and just a point behind the Austrian leaders. In third are the Chinese, Zaiding Wen and Tian Liu who scored 5,4 from their two races in blue group. Grummett and Hawes are two points behind in fourth overall.

After a difficult first day in lighter breeze, Ireland’s Rob Dickson and Sean Waddilove bounced back with scores of 2,3 in red group. They suffered a bad event at the Trofeo Princesa Sofia in early April but were silver medallists behind the Chinese at the Semaine Olympique Française a few weeks later. That was a morale booster for the team who finished fourth at the Paris 2024 Games. “Coming fourth in the Games was pretty tough but when you come so close you know you can definitely fight for a medal, and that’s why I decided to keep on going and do another campaign,” said Waddilove.

At the bottom end of yellow group, the Indian team of Prince Noble and Manu Kurisingal were fighting to get their boat around the race track. “We have been struggling specifically with our gybes in this breeze,” said Kurisingal. “Otherwise, things were okay. We had good starts and good mark roundings, but the gybes are where we are struggling. There is a lot to learn on a day like today.” While the Worlds are the biggest event of the year for most teams, if anything the Indians from Mumbai are looking at this as a useful training event for the Asian Games taking place later this year in Japan.

There was quite a lot of capsizing in the 49er fleet and with the wind picking up throughout the day, the race committee cancelled 49erFX and Nacra 17 racing for Wednesday. The forecast for Thursday is for wind almost as strong, but hopefully within racing range for all three Olympic classes.