Nacra 17 Worlds 2022: Day 1 Results

Photo: Sailing Energy / Nacra 17 Class Assoc, more at their Fb here or at Regatta web here. Breezy Day 1 for the 2022 Nacra 17 Worlds, regatta being held at Nova Scotia, Canada.

3 Bullets for Tita & Banti, end of the report…. !

Aside seeing a constant domination from the current Olympic Champs, interesting to watch teams, that we at least, weren’t seen racing any other Catamaran Class at top level or even participating in one, performing consistently at top level like the Finish team.

Will try to get some background on Sinem Kurtbay & Akseli Keskinen.
Below results official Class report.

Top ten, complete results nacra17.org/events/2022-world-championship/#results

Full-Send Up and Down on Day 1

There was no hesitation to hoist the gennaker on the Nacra 17 course today for day one of the World Championships despite 24 knots and four to six-foot waves on St. Margaret’s Bay. “We had to send it for all it’s worth,” said New Zealand Nacra driver Micah Wilkinson about his approach to the day’s racing. “There’s never any backing off.”

Americans Ben Rosenberg & Cali Salinas sailing their first worlds together took a slightly more conservative approach. “We really worked at controlling our speed downwind,” said Ben Rosenberg, an American Nacra 17 driver. He and Salinas are missing their university studies to sail in Nova Scotia.

It was the current Olympic champions Ruggerio Tita and Caterina Banti of Italy, however, who demonstrated the “full-send,” foiling upwind and down, and winning all three races. Wilkinson and crew Erica Dawson had a clear view of the Italian’s technique finishing second in the final race and are sitting in fifth overall.

“Now it’s kind of about who’s learning the quickest,” said Wilkinson about the fleet’s progression with the new adjustable rudders that allow the boats to foil in more control upwind and down. The loads on boat and sailors are now higher a result of much greater righting moment, taking its toll on both.

“I feel like everyone’s getting closer except for those Italians at the head of the fleet,” said Wilkinson. “We got close to them last time but in the first races they were just launched. They’ve got so much upwind boat speed.”

The Kiwis have been trying to break a pattern that sees three strong Italian teams consistently sailing in the top five at all the major events. Sinem Kurtbay & Akseli Keskinen of Finland and the Swedish pair of Emil Jarudd & Hanna Jonsson, in second and third respectively, had by all accounts epic days on the water with tidy score lines sandwiching them between the leaders and Italian junior world champions Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei.

It’s still early days in this world championship, far too soon to identify any performance patterns but the next two days are likely to dish out more diverse weather as the North Atlantic settles down after this ripping frontal passage moves eastward.