2005 420 Worlds, Brest, France

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Big Fleet gathers in Brest for 420 Worlds

The 2005 420 World Championships in Brest, France have attracted 320 competitors from 26 countries.  New Zealand will be represented by a team of 18 sailors, ranging in age from 14 to 40 years. The largest representation is from the host country France with 56 sailors, Spain, Britain, Italy have 28 sailors each at the regatta. Of the New Zealanders, four are from Canterbury, three from Auckland,  and one each from Wellington and Tauranga.

On 20 July New Zealand were the first 420 Worlds Team to start assembling their boats to commence training for the Open and Women’s World 420 Championship regatta. Since then it’s been training on the race water’s in 4-25 knots. Three days ago they were joined by the NZ 420 Youth World Team, from Korea.

Tonight, in Brest, France, The NZ 420 Worlds Team and Supporters along with North Shore City Council, Events and Tourism Manager, Paul Dunphy host a Kiwi-Cocktail event for Senior delegates and members of the of International 420 Class Association General Assembly. The all Kiwi food and drinks party being to assist with our formal bid on 1 August for North Shore sailing clubs to host future 420 World Championship Events.

Today, the Kiwis completed boat measurement and are now ready to race on the 29th July. The only hitch so far has been the loss of some sails which have gone missing en route from New Zealand, however replacements have been arranged.
 

Team coach Simon Cooke, a former World Champion and Olympic rep in the 420's bigger sister is running a daily diary on his website www.simoncooke.co.nz/420worlds2005.html . Here's a few excerpts:

'It is very important to note that this is our first real Worlds with a full team and a Coach and full Support Team. So I have no expectations for any great results although we will certainly try our best.
'The main thing is to learn as much as we can for future years as NZ has really only being sailing 420’s for just over two years, unlike the rest of the World who has been sailing them for many years.
'Our first goal is to get as many teams into Gold fleet as possible and then focus on do the best we can with our top sailors in the final series.”
'There are a few more teams turning up slowly every day. After my sailing experience from the 470 I am shocked with how late all the teams are arriving before starting the World Championship.
'Now there are AUS, GER, ITA, ARG and IND out on the water each day although, unlike the 470 no teams seem interested in sailing together on the water. I suppose that’s because of the high turn over of sailors each year and nobody really knows each other.

'To our pleasure the team was performing extremely well and sailed consistently faster or higher than the opposition. So much so, that some other coaches commented on our performance to me the next day.
'I am glad to see that I am not alone and many of the other coaches and support teams helping out before or during the Worlds, are top 470 sailors and friends who have all performed highly in the 470 over the last five to ten years. At one point we had three 470 World and European Champions standing together talking!'

The NZ 420 Worlds Team acknowledge the fantastic and generous contributions and support of:

Yachting New Zealand, The Southern Trust, New Zealand International Yachting Trust Inc., North Shore City Council Tourism, Pub Charity, The Trusts Charitable Foundation Inc., Sport Canterbury, VDM Dirty Dog glasses, Evan Jones Construction, Trade Staff Ltd, South Auckland Charitable Trust, Singapore Airlines, Sky Travel, and Events Clothing  + NZ 420 coaches:- Andrew Brown, Phil Keen, Mat Brown and Simon Cooke.
 

Photos and source text courtesy of www.nz420group.co.nz/association.htm

KS280705

420 Worlds Day 1: Great results for Kiwis

New Zealand has had a great first day with the Womens crew of Sarah Bilkey and Rosie Sargisson lying second overall and the second girls crew of Georgina Hill and Michelle Kennedy is in 8th overall

Results here: http://420worldchampionship.srbrest.com/regattas/res/ladies_day1_t1.html

With two wins from three races, Peter Burling and Bruce Kennedy are lying fifth overall after placing 17th in their third race.

Full results here: http://420worldchampionship.srbrest.com/regattas/res/open_qr_day1_t1.htm

Start of Womens 420 Race 1 (Simon Cooke Photo)

Report from NZL Coach Simon Cooke

Conditions: SW (onshore gradient) 10-16 knots

Wow what a day!!! We are clearly on the pace and I am very excited that we choose the World’s best 420’s along with having all the best equipment available in the World.

We have started exceptionally well and I am very proud to be the NZL coach.

Peter and Bruce won the first two races easily and could have done much better in the third if they had not started at the wrong end of the line. We are confident this won’t happen again, I hope? We have discussed in depth with all our sailors that we must always do the basics and check these things continually, as we have no room to makes these mistakes at this level.

Sarah and Rosie started very strongly as well with two 4 th places in the women’s fleet, fantastic considering Sarah has only been steering the boat for a few months and they recently joined up together.

In fact the whole team sailed extremely well and clearly had a speed edge on the World in the stronger airs.

I will note that we should not get to excited though, as the wind will lighten over the next two days and this will make the sailing much harder for the Kiwis. We also have many races left in the regatta.

Never the less a great start to the World Championships for a Team and country with much to learn about 420’s.

Results

These are the only results available from the organisers. Will be updated when more information comes to hand. NZL crews have finished with a fourth in one race in the Womens, and two wins and a second in the Mens Racing.

KS310705

420 Worlds Day 2: Four Kiwi crews in the Top Ten

Provisional results are just in from the second day of racing at the 420 Worlds in Brest in France. New Zealand crews have had a day of mixed fortunes, but have four crews - two each in the Mens and Womens Worlds - in the top ten overall.

Best result has come from the Mens crew of Chris Dawson and Scott Illingworth who won the sixth race, repeating the efforts of Peter Burling and Bruce Kennedy who, yesterday, scored two wins in three races. The results across the fleets were very mixed with Dawson and Illingworth returning a 9, 29, 1 scorecard to sit in ninth place overall after the first discard was allowed on the completion of six races.

  Close action in the Open 420 fleet (Photo: Franck Gicquiaud)

The ISAF Youth Worlds crew of Peter Burling and Bruce Kennedy finished the day with an 8, 3, 24 scorecard and lie in fourth place overall - dropping the 34th place as their discard.

In the Womens event, Sarah Bilkey and Rosemary Sargisson have dropped to sixth place overall after the completion of four races. They scored 26th and 25th placings on the second day - well short of their pair of fourth placings from Day 1, but did not suffer that badly on the scoreboard.

The second Womens crew of Georgina Hill and Michelle Kennedy are eighth overall with placings of 33rd and 18th from the two races sailed.

Provisional results can be viewed here:

Womens Results: http://420worldchampionship.srbrest.com/regattas/res/ladies_day2_t1.html

Mens Results: http://420worldchampionship.srbrest.com/regattas/res/open_qr_day2_t1.html

KS010805

420 Worlds Day 2: Report from the Coach - Six Kiwi crews in Gold Finals

Simon Cooke, Kiwi 420 Worlds Coach makes the following comments after the second day of racing

31st July - Day Two

Conditions: W, NW (onshore gradient) 0-12 knots

Chris Dawson and Scott Illingworth win by half a leg of the course in Race 6

A light day of racing along with very shifty and up and down pressure made sailing extremely difficult for the sailors.

Chris and Scott won the last race of the day by half a leg. They had the most wind out of the whole day on their windward leg, putting nearly a minute on the fleet! Whilst doing this they showed incredible speed and looked very sharp.

Three men’s teams have made it through to the gold fleet finals, which is fantastic for NZL and four teams are placed inside the top ten at this point of the regatta.

Current positions in short are 4th and 9th in the men's and 6th and 8th in the women's.

The team is really buzzing and I am once again very proud to be apart of this team.

I will note for the second time that the conditions will get lighter and much harder for our sailors. This will mean that we will find out how we are performing in lighter airs against the best in the World for the final races.

Kiwis Philip Williams and Robert Bryant  beat the bunch.  Photo: Laurent Vidal / www.photomer.com

After a late finish we had a dinner with all the competitors along with a fantastic party organized by the host Club and we have many funny stories to be told at another time. In fact I don’t think I have laughed so hard, which was actually quite uncomfortable on my face muscles.

Once again I would like to thank the entire Support Team especially Kate, as keeping track of 18 sailors is quite and effort and couldn’t have been achieved without a combined effort. I am absolutely impressed with how well every thing has come together and we look to be one of the best organized and prepared teams.

Today was a lay day in the 420's as the fleet prepares for the Finals phase of the event.

KS020805

420 Worlds: Newsflash!

New Zealand to host 2007 420 World Championships!!

Photo by  Franck Gicquiaud/Littoral Ouest

This just in from the SBRrest, France - organisers of the 2005 420 World Championships

"Tuesday 2 th August : Start races later because wind is “in vacancy”. Weather will better this afternoon. Résults will be late.
 

"In waiting, the news of the day is that NZL will organize the world championship en January 2007. A good news for the NZL teams."

 

Well done and congratulations to the NZ 420 Association, Yachting NZ and the North Shore City Council!!

Latest from the Media office in Brest!  " It’s at 14:00 PM that the race started. The wind was 9 knots in west. The women start is always in black flat, their favourite color.

"No problem for the start of silver group. It’s about the gold group that it’s a difficult : one of part of the fleet go on a side, since the other part go to an other side. 25 boats in the good way and 17 DNF. Reclamations are at the evening program for the jury…"

The situation will no doubt be clarified in a later update!

KS020805

420 Worlds Day 3: Kiwis Lead Open Fleet

Report from the Coach

The New Zealand crew of Peter Burling and Bruce Kennedy are leading the Open Gold Fleet in the 420 World Championship at Brest, France. A second New Zealand crew of Chris Dawson and Scott Illingworth are in fifth place overall. They finished fourth and 10th respectively in the first race of the final round, and then scored a win and a fifth respectively in the second race of the day. The second race ended in controversy after almost half of the fleet were disqualified by the International Jury for not correctly sailing the course.

 Racing against the backdrop of the old city of Brest (Photo: Franck Gicquiaud)

In the Women's fleet Sarah Bilkie and Rosie Sargisson finished the day with 25th and 10th against their names, and remain in sixth place overall - saved the by application of a discard - relieving them of a 27th place in Race 3. The second womens crew  of Georgina Hill and Michelle Kennedy had a bad day finishing 18th and 55th - which went with the application of the discard.

Simon Cooke, Kiwi 420 Worlds Coach makes the following comments after the third day of racing

Conditions: W, NW (on shore) 0-8 knots

Today worked out fairly well for most of our top placed sailors.

After being postponed ashore we finally got away around 3:30pm with the women and then the men.

Mixed fortunes in the women with Sarah and Rosie showing that they are progressing extremely well and learning the finer skills of big fleet racing. They had a great start off the pin end and never looked like finishing outside the top ten.

(Photo: Franck Gicquiaud)

Georgina and Michelle unfortunately had a got start at the wrong end of the line (boat end) and did well to finish in the 50’s. We had a good discussion about their starting tactics and hopefully they will move forward and continue to perform strongly like they have so far.

In the guys, our top two teams did extremely well.  Pete and Bruce won the race and Chris and Scott were coming second before the half the fleet who had sailed the wrong course joined in with them at the bottom mark and ruined their race. We hope that they come some where between second and sixth.  But, we cannot be sure as so many of the boats who finished in front of them and ruined their mark rounding had done the wrong course. Otherwise it will be another late night as we seek redress for them again due to circumstances outside their own control.

Let’s see if we can continue the fantastic racing we have had so far by the team today.

Provisional results can be viewed here:

Womens Fleet

Mens Results: Gold Fleet  Silver Fleet