ISAF Sailing World Championships - 470 Class
4-13 July 2007- Cascais, Portugal

High waves and heavy, gusty winds dominate day two

Cascais, 8 July 2007 Conditions got heavier today at the ISAF Sailing World Championships, giving the specialists of strong winds and high waves a lot to play with in a new day of racing with race three and four on the schedule for the World Championships in the 470 Class Men and Women.

The 470 class changed race area today and moved to course 5, closer to the Atlantic and with less influence of the bay of Cascais, letting wind and waves become more free elements.

470 WOMEN

Marcelien DE KONING and Lobke BERKHOUT (NED) took their advantage of the circumstances and took a convincing lead in today’s first race to finally score a bullet and strengthen their title defending position. In race four they come in second and ensure their leadership in the 470 Women.

It was waiting for heavy conditions to have questions answered if Giulia CONTI and Giovanna MICOL from Italy would be able to act as strong in heavy conditions as they do in light winds. Starting in a different group as the Dutch title defenders they showed some excellent sailing today by finishing fifth in race three, and winning race four. However, their win did not bring success while they were disqualified after protest.

The Women from Italy have only been sailing 470’s since 2005 and have been making great efforts since, by ending fifth in the World Championships of 2006, and taking Silver at the last 470 Europeans in June this year.

Sweden’s Therese TORGERSSON and Vendela ZACHRISSON show great consistency and after the decision of qualification of the Italian Women, they currently form the biggest threat for the Dutch Ladies.

Ingrid PETITJEAN and Nadege DOUROUX have made a great come back today by ending second in race three and claiming race four to their names.

Tomorrow, after five races, discards will become effective, and in the current situation the French Women would climb to a second overall position. It would still mean that those who have not given away their discards, still have room to make one mistake.

Overnight leaders Elise RECHICI and Tessa PARKINSON (AUS) did not manage to maintain their success of yesterday in these heavy conditions. The girls from Australia with three (youth sailing) World Championship titles on their names started under average with an eleventh position in race three, but could still ensure an overall top five position by ending the last race as sixth.

470 MEN

At 16:00 it was the turn to the 470 Men to line up for race three. The wind had dropped, and with the sea unchanged, boats pushed each other over the line and it took three starting attempts to send the first 470 Men’s Group to the upper mark.

Shortly after the first valid start, the wind picked up again to increase quickly into a strong and gusty breeze.

Some teams took a side on the course and went extreme, to tack on lay line and head for the upper mark. Those who took the right side had taken the right decision and could expand their leads by taking the advantage of free wind.

After today’s races, Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm PAGE convincingly take over the overall lead by scoring two second places that bring them on top of the leaderboard with an 11 points difference on the number two, Stuart McNAY and Graham BIEHL from the USA.

The battle for following places has become very tight as the difference between # 2 en 3 is only five points.

Sven and Kalle COSTER from the Netherlands took an amazing jump today after ending race three in second place, and taking an enormous, but prosperous risk in the final phase of race four by pulling their spinnaker in a chaotic situation with gusts far over 30 knots.

The Dutch Men, who have demonstrated more often that they are specialist in extreme conditions, almost literally flew from a tenth to leading position.

TOP 10 - 470 MEN (Results before protest)
1	AUS		311	WILMOT, Nathan MALCOLM, Page	1	6	2	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	11
2	USA		1713	MCNAY, Stuart GRAHAM, Biehl	3	7	5	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	21
3	ESP		1	SANCHEZ, Francisco ALEJANDRO, Ramos	3	11	3	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	22
4	NED		1	COSTER, Sven KALLE, Coster	6	14	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	23
5	GER		4	ZELLMER, Lukas HEIKO, Seelig	2	10	4	7	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	23
6	POR		22	MARINHO, Alvaro MIGUEL, Nunes	2	8	14	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	25
7	FRA		11	BONNAUD, Benjamin ROMAIN, Bonnaud	7	13	5	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	26
8	GRE		165	KAMPOURIDIS, Panagiotis GERASIMOS, Orologas	8	5	16	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	33
9	ESP		9	BARREIROS, Onan AAARON, Sarmiento	14	7	10	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	34
10	FRA		17	PALLU DE LA BARRIE, Alexandre AYMERIC, Chappelier	4	20	6	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	35
TOP 10 - 470 WOMEN (Results before protest)
1	NED		11	DE KONING, Marcelien LOBKE, Berkhout	4	2	1	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	9
2	SWE		323	TORGERSSON, Therese VENDELA, Zachreisson	3	5	3	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	13
3	JPN		4151	KONDO, Ai NAOKO, Kamata	1	6	10	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	21
4	AUS		357	RECHICHI, Elise TESSA, Parkinson	1	5	11	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	22
5	GBR		833	BASSADONE, Christina SASKIA, Clark	13	1	1	8	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	23
6	FRA		9	LECOINTRE, Camille GWENDOLYN, Lemaitre	3	9	8	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	25
7	ISR		10	KORNECKI, Nike VERED, Bouskila	6	10	3	9	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	28
8	FRA		4	PETITJEAN, Ingrid NADèGE, Douroux	5	25	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	33
9	CHN		214	SHEN, Yinjuan YINENG, Huang	10	7	13	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	33
10	CAN		630	PROVAN, Jen CAROL, Luttmer	9	14	7	7	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	37