Cascais Photo Galleries

The Basics

Event: Multihull
Equipment: Tornado
Fleet size: 57
Olympic qualification places: 11
Reigning World Champion: Darren BUNDOCK and Glenn ASHBY (AUS)
Reigning Olympic Champion: Roman HAGARA and Hans-Peter STEINACHER (AUT)

Tornado Runners and Riders

Top Ten Results

Full Tornado Results

Click here to view the nations which have qualified for the 2008 Olympic Sailing Competition

9 July

Medal Race Blown Out - ECHAVARRI And PAZ 2007 World Champions

By Patricia Kirschner

Another frustrating waiting day for the Tornados - Cascais called the wind and it arrived: 28-32 knots blew out any chances of racing today.

Although a Medal Race was not possible the overall results were pretty much fair to all the sailors.

1. Fernando ECHAVARRI and Anton PAZ (ESP)
2. Carolijn BROUWER and Sebastien GODEFROID (BEL)
3. Mitch BOOTH and Pim NIEUWENHUIS (NED)

ECHAVARRI and PAZ deserved the title of World Champion and showed that the team is in good shape again.

The event in Cascais was about sailing consistently and the Spanish team did it by having only one result out of the top 10.

'Although we didn't race today I think the event had a fair result. The three teams on the podium deserved to be there,' says ECHAVARRI.

'It's very rewarding to see the result of lots of training and dedication and it will definitely give us the motivation to continue trying even harder for Qingdao,' added PAZ.

BROUWER and GODEFROID proved that a mixed team with a girl steering can give the guys a run for their money in any wind conditions.

'We came here aiming to finish top 10 and scoring a place on the podium felt very, very good,' says GODEFROID.

'It was a nerve wrecking day and although we didn't mind not sailing we were ready to fight for the podium on the water,' added BROUWER.

BOOTH and NIEUWENHUIS started sailing together less than a year ago and proved to be a good match. They have been training with ECHAVARRI and PAZ, a combination that has clearly paid off for both parties.

'It's a pleasure to be on the Tornado podium for the eighth time again. The goal now is to get ready for Qingdao,' says BOOTH.

8 July

Top 10 For The Medal Race Decided - The Pressure Is On!

By Patricia Kirschner

After a frustrating Saturday, the Tornados went back to the water to sail two challenging and shifty races.

Race 7 - 10 to 12 knots, NW, 1.3 m swell

Race 8 - 8 to 12 knots

Although the conditions were far better than yesterday it was still very difficult and challenging on the water for the Tornados. Both races saw very shifty conditions.

Race 7 started with a General Recall followed by a Black Flag start. Unlucky for Enrique FIGUEROA and Jorge HERNANDEZ (PUR) who were early over the line. Iordanis PASCHILIDES and Kostas TRIGONIS (GRE) led the whole race keeping a close grip on Darren BUNDOCK and Glenn ASHBY (AUS).

'Today is the first day that I woke up not feeling sick. Glenn and I are feeling strong again and as I said yesterday, it was time for a come back!' says BUNDOCK. The team scored a second and a fourth today and climbed up to fourth overall.

The Dutch team of Mitch BOOTH and Pim NIEUWENHIS had a strong day as well with a third and a second and go to the Medal Race in third overall.

The wind dropped as race 8 got underway after a clean start and a bad collision between Allan NORREGAARD and Risor MICHAEL (DEN) and Stanislav GOLOMBIEVSKYI and Oleksiy VOLOSHENYUK (UKR). Both boats had to retire with bad damage.

Antonio RIVAS and Fabien ESCUDE (ESP) and BOOTH and NIEUWENHIS had a very close race with the Spanish leading most of the race. On the last upwind BOOTH and NIEUWENHIS passed them, but the Spanish had a brilliant downwind to cross the line just ahead of the Dutch.

'It was not an easy race with all the shifts. We managed to get a clean and good start and take the lead early on. We put a distance from Mitch and that gave us the advantage to control what we wanted to do. But we made a mistake and Mitch managed to pass us on the last upwind. We wanted that first place! We did an exciting and perfect downwind and got it on the line!' explained ESCUDE. Unfortunately that wasn't enough to guarantee them a place in the Medal Race as they are 12th overall.

Fernando ECHAVARRI and Anton PAZ (ESP) continue to sail very consistently and scored a sixth and a third. They go to the Medal Race leading the event by six points and favourites to repeat their World Championship win of 2005.

'We obviously want to have a good race like we had today but the conditions are tricky. Tomorrow we will have to do a lot of control and keep an eye on our immediate competitors,' says ECHAVARRI.

The Belgium mixed team of Carolijn BROUWER and Sebastien GODEFROID, having an excellent campaign in this event, are also up to the title. They are second overall.

Any of the top four could sail away with the World title tomorrow and it will be a tight fight not to be missed. The Tornado Medal race is schedule for 16:30 local time and will be broadcast live on Sail.TV.

7 July

On The Comeback Trail

By Patricia Kirschner

One of the biggest surprises so far in Cascais came when defending World Champions and the much-fancied Australian Tornado team of Darren BUNDOCK and Glenn ASHBY opened their regatta with two scores of 19. Had complacency set in, the pressure got to them, or simply the conditions caught them out? Patricia Kirschner went to find out…

BUNDOCK and ASHBY teamed up in the Tornado at the start of 2006 and have been a near unstoppable force ever since. When the team formed BUNDOCK was a four-time Tornado World Champion and ASHBY a multiple World Champion in the single-handed A-Class catamaran. Now the pair, coached by the legendary Mike 'Fletch' FLETCHER, have another World title to their name, won the 2007 Europeans and hold the #1 spot in the ISAF World Sailing Rankings. Their success hasn't been limited to just the Tornado either. Last year they won the ISAF World Sailing Games on the Hobie Tiger and they are also multiple Formula 18 World Champions.

Bad Start

The Aussie pair are renowned for their fantastic boat handling and superior speed in the breeze, a combination that made them red hot favourite for Cascais. But so far things have not gone to plan, especially a 19,19 first day to the regatta. So what went wrong…

'We have been extremely busy with our preparation for the event and unfortunately both Glenn and myself got quite sick a couple of days before the event and have been trying to recover since,' explained BUNDOCK, adding, 'We are now midway through the regatta after six races and really welcomed the lay day.'

Since the pair started sailing together they have never finished outside the top ten in an ISAF Graded event and only twice outside the top five: once in Hyères, when they left the regatta a day early whilst holding the lead, and then at the Olympic Test Event in Qingdao last August.

As BUNDOCK explained, day one in Cascais left them trailing in unfamiliar waters, 'We have probably had the worst start to a regatta since we started sailing together and had two 19th places on the opening day and finished the day in 20th place…ouch.. gee not so good for defending champions…'

Come Back

Since then though, the Aussies have hauled themselves back into contention and are now back in the top ten, 18 points off overall leaders Fernando ECHAVARRI and Anton PAZ (ESP). Their situation would be even better if they had not missed a big shift on the course in race 6, which saw them relegated from third to 12th. Still BUNDOCK seemed happy with the team's performance after day one and optimistic about the racing to come, 'Well since then [day one] things have been looking a little better and we have had a score card of 6,4,2 and 12 and are slowly moving up the score sheet to seventh overall. The good news is that Glenn has now recovered and I am getting there and starting to feel stronger again.'

Four races remain for the Tornado fleet before the Medal Race on Monday. BUNDOCK and ASHBY have a terrific record in the final double-points shoot out and, although they now cannot afford any more mistakes, are more than capable of hauling in the leaders.

In the words of BUNDOCK, 'Now it's time for a come back.'

5 July

Another Windy Day Means Another Good Day

by Patricia Kirschner

The wind and the swell picked up on the third day of the ISAF Sailing World Championships

Race 5 - 12 to 14 knots, N, 2 to 2.3 m swell
Race 6 - 18 to 22 knots with gusts reaching 24 knots.

A very busy day for the Tornados that had to work pretty hard to stay on top of it.

The Dutch team of Mitch BOOTH and Pim NIEUWENHUIS (NED) lived up to their reputation on strong conditions and won race 5. The second upwind saw the Dutch team followed closely by Darren BUNDOCK and Glenn ASHBY (AUS) taking the lead all the way to the finish line. Thereafter it was a close fight for who would cross in third: the teams of Andy WALSH and Ed BARNEY (GBR), Fernando ECHAVARRI and Anton PAZ (ESP) and Xavier REVIL and Christophe ESPAGNON (FRA) arrived seconds from each other - America's Cup style!

The Argentineans Santiago LANGE and Carlos ESPINOLA capsized on the first downwind after ESPINOLA fell in the water. They also did not finish race 6 and are now 23rd overall.

The French dominated race 6 from the start to finish. The teams of Yann GUICHARD and Alexandre GUYADER (FRA) and Billy BESSON and Arnaud JARLEGAN (FRA) had no competition to cross in first and second. BUNDOCK and ASHBY were holding the third position but missed the shift and dropped to 12th. ECHAVARRI and PAZ, right behind them, saw it coming and finished third. They are now the leaders with 25 points.

'We had a clean start and saw the shift favouring the right hand side of the course. Xavier and us put a comfortable distance to the rest of the fleet. It makes a difference to sail like that,' said JARLEGAN.

Carolijn BROUWER and Sebastien GODEFROID (BEL) finished eighth in race 5. The next race was more challenging with the shifts and they scored an 18th. They are in second place with 29 points. REVIL and ESPAGNON were also in the pack that missed the shift and scored a 13th on race 6. They are in third overall with 35 points.

The Tornados will have a deserved rest day tomorrow and will be back on the water on Saturday for two more races.

4 July

Wind Means Fun In The Tornados

by Patricia Kirschner

The Tornados, on their second day of racing in Cascais, did what they do best with a show of speed, excitement and manoeuvrings. The conditions improved today, with race 3 in 10 knots increasing up 14 for race 4.

The Belgium team of Carolijn BROUWER and Sebastien godefroid were the stars of the day, again sailing very consistently. They are leading the Worlds after scoring two thirds today.

Fernando ECHAVARRI and Anton PAZ (ESP) won comfortably today's first race, finishing more than 1 minute ahead of second place Mitch BOOTH and Pim NIEUWENHUIS (NED). The Spanish are second and the Dutch third overall.

'We have been sailing in light winds throughout the season and we have been joking they were girlish winds. Carolijn proved us wrong sailing very well in windy conditions,' said BOOTH. 'Hopefully the windy conditions will stay throughout the event,' he added.

In race 4, Xavier REVIL and Christophe ESPAGNON (FRA) only lost the lead to Leigh MCMILLAN and Will HOWDEN (GBR) for one leg.

'Leigh and Will got the best out of a pressure on the last upwind of the race and passed us. But we managed to sail a perfect last downwind and got the first back,' explained ESPAGNON.

The windy conditions pleased the fleet and saw the familiar faces back to the front. Darren BUNDOCK and Glenn ASHBY (AUS), the defending World Champions, climbed back to the top ten with a sixth and a fourth. They are now eighth overall.

About The 2007 ISAF Worlds

Over 1,300 sailors from 76 nations are competing at the 2007 ISAF Sailing World Championships, from 28 June-13 July in Cascais, Portugal. 'The Wind Is Calling' is the official motto for the 2007 Worlds. The Championships are the principal qualification regatta for the 2008 Olympic Sailing Competition, with 75% of all national places to be decided.

Watch the Medal Races live on Sail.TV

For all the news on the ISAF Sailing World Championships 2007 CLICK HERE.