49er Worlds Review
Written by Harvey Hillary | 12 January 2010
It all looked so good for the Skandia Team GBR crews going into the regatta but we'll look back on missed opportunities and an anticlimactic medal race that saw 4 teams drop out of Medal contention. However, if your glass is half full, the 2010 Worlds were a stunning success for the squad, with 5 teams in the top 10 and a breakthrough result from Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign finishing 5th overall and top Brit.
It’s really great to see another 'Development' team start to fulfil their potential and it’s a real testament to their professionalism over the past 18 months. What was even more surprising was the way they constructed a series with consistent finishes in qualification and the second best scoreline in Gold Fleet. With much of the racing sailed in very shifty offshore winds, this was a mature and controlled display by a team who have now put a marker down for the proven performers.
John Pink and Rick Peacock will leave the Bahamas with mixed feelings. A difficult penultimate day brought them back into the pack and a poor medal race tainted an otherwise excellent series. Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes and Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith were in a similar positions having both had solid starts to the regatta. Again it was high scoring penultimate days and a poor medal races that saw them drop to 7,8 and 10th overall.
One team that did leave on an upbeat note was Chris Draper and Peter Greenhalgh. They had been plagued with bad luck and mistakes early in the week and at one point looked like finishing out of the top 10. However, their patience and a strong final day in the breeze saw them climb to 6th overall and 2nd Brit which was an impressive turn around.
I guess the question everyone is now asking is how a team so dominant can come away without a medal. Well, we will look to identify those factors in the de-brief when all the teams are back in the UK. What is clear is that Iker Martinez and Xavier are very worthy 2010 World Champions.
Next up... Going for Gold Presentation at the London Boat Show on Wednesday!