sunfish worlds 2011: racing video collection

here is a great collection of video taken during the 2011 Sunfish Worlds down in Curacao.  the whole video is about 22 minutes long, with a ton of video coverage out on the water during the Sunfish racing, as well as some video shots from the beach during the setup, and a few short interviews with sailors (not always in English, though).

the video gets really exciting at about 9 minutes in – the video below should start right there – and continues for about 5 or 6 minutes.  the wind must have been really strong, and the waves were really big, and you can see the Sunfish sailboats cresting up and over the wave peak, and riding the wave down into the trough, at times seeming to swallow up almost the whole Sunfish and sailor.

there is also an short 30-second interview (direct link) with the 2011 Sunfish Worlds champion, Matheus Dellagnelo. and a slideshow of photos at the end of the video, but for photos… you’re better off just browsing the hundreds of photos at the Sunfish Worlds 2011 Flickr stream.

sunfish worlds 2011: Matheus is the champion!

ahead by 6 points going into the final day of racing at the 2011 Sunfish Worlds, Matheus Dellagnelo of Brazil held nothing back, as he went to sail for 1st place finishes in the first 2 races of the day, which mathematically gave him the crown without even having to sail in the 11th and final race.

matheus dellagnelo (photo by Marianne Lenos)

Matheus sailed with amazing consistency and finished with (3) 1st places, (3) 2nd places, (2) 3rd places, (1) 6th place, and (2) discards, including the DNC in the final race to finish with 21 points total, just enough to stay 1 point ahead of 2nd place Alexander Zimmerman of Peru, who won the final race.  behind him in 3rd place was Francisco Renna of Argentina, and Ard van Aanholt of the host country Curacao finished in 4th place.  David Loring of the USA, a 3-time Sunfish World Champion (recently in 2009), finished in 5th place.  the full results can be found here.

also, the top racers per category are as follows, per Sunfishworlds2011.c0m.  [Category: Sailor (Home country, overall place)]

• Junior: Ard van Aanholt (Curacao, 4th)
• Apprentice: Matheus Dellagnelo (Brazil, 1st)
• Apprentice Master: David Mendelblatt (USA, 9th)
• Master: Malcolm Smith (Bermuda, 14th)
• Grand Master:Richard van der Wal (Aruba, 46)
• Great Grand Master: Dolf van der Giessen (Curacao, 59)

I’m sure this evening is busy with the festivities and the awards ceremony will be tomorrow night, so I’m sure that SunfishWorlds2011.com will have more updates in the next day or two.  as usual, stop by and check out the hundreds of incredible photographs taken in Curacao, during the racing and on the beach areas.

matheus (photo by bea moedt)

 

sunfish worlds 2011: day 3

some of the day 3 racing was delayed due to rain, but they were able to get in 2 races.  Matheus Dellagnelo of Brazil maintains his hold of first place overall, finishing day 3 with a 3rd place and 2nd place finish.  Alexander Zimmerman of Peru with a 1st place and 4th place today moves up a spot to 2nd place overall.  Ard van Aanholt of the host country Curacao dropped one spot to 4th place overall, as he finished with a 9th and 10th today, allowing Francisco Renna of Argentina to move up 1 spot to 3rd place overall.

some of the photos from day 3 racing and the Annabaai parade have been uploaded (I would imagine more are in process).  the buildings are so colorful along the waterline!

day 3 - Annabaai parade (photo by Bea Moedt)

here is a video of a parade on the water in Annabaai today, with 70 Sunfish sailboats participating!

tomorrow is a day of rest, with racing to be concluded with up to 3 races on Friday, and the Awards Ceremony on Saturday.

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a day 3 recap from Luis Horacio Canuto of Argentina can be found at the Dingo Sailing Blog (here is an English translation).

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and there are now pictures of racing from day 2 that have been uploaded to the Flickr photostream.  the pictures aren’t all tagged, but photo credits should go to Bea Moedt, Marianne Lenos, Ltz Duin and Kurt Peterson.

day 2 racing

sunfish worlds 2011: day 2

after day 2 of the Sunfish Worlds 2011, there is a shuffling at the leaderboard, with Matheus Dellagnelo of Brazil taking hold of first place overall with (2) 2nd place races on day 2. Ard van Aanholt of the host country Curacao is currently holding onto 2nd place overall, only 3 points behind the leader.  the 1st race of day 2 was won by Alexander Zimmerman of Peru, who currently sits in 3rd place. the final 2 races of day 2 were both won by Francisco Renna of Argentina, moving him up into 4th place.

there aren’t as many photos posted today (yet?) of the racing, but still several shots from the beach of the Sunfish racing or coming back into shore, and there are some close-up shots of some of the sailors.  see the full set at Flickr here.

day 2 (photo by Bea Moedt)

a day 1 recap from Luis Horacio Canuto of Argentina can be found at the Dingo Sailing Blog (here is an English translation).

also, stop on over at Regatta-Fanatic, to get a recap of the Sunfish Youth Worlds from Rhône Findlay of St Maarten, who finished the Sunfish Youth Worlds in 16th place,  sailing in a boat that was mostly unfamiliar to him!

sunfish worlds 2011: day 1

day 1 of the 2011 Sunfish Worlds is in the books, with 3 races completed this afternoon.  the current leader is a familiar face, David Loring of the USA, who has won the Sunfish Worlds three times already, with his latest win in 2009.  he holds a 3.5 point lead over Jon-Paul Patin of the USA, also a previous Sunfish Worlds winner (1992). [you can see a full list of previous Worlds champions here.]  the host country Curacao has 3 sailors currently in the top 10, led by Ard van Aanholt in 4th place, and Curacao has 9 sailors in the top 30. Jean Paul de Trazegnies from Peru, the winner of the 2011 Sunfish Youth Worlds a few days ago, is currently in 13th place.

as usual, there are some amazing photos of the sailing action out on the water, although apparently Bea Moedt is having some issues with the camera and water not getting along!  but you could have fooled me – these photos are fantastic, and it looks like amazing, and maybe a little bit crazy conditions out on the water.

photo by Bea Moedt

Laser Performance (@LaserPerform) has also posted several pictures from today on Facebook.

photo by Laser Performance

also, Gerard with Sunfishworlds2011.com posted some aerial photos that the Coast Guard shared with them – you can find several pictures at this Flickr folder.

photo by LT M.Q.J. Duin

sunfish youth worlds 2011: day 2, day 3 & results

on day 2 of the Sunfish Youth Worlds, Kevin Van Otterdijk from Curacao made up for a RAF (retire after finish) result from day 1, and took over 1st place by winning races 4 and 5, and taking 2nd place in race 6.  he held a slim 2-pt lead over Jean Paul de Trazegnies from Peru going into the final day of racing.

even though Kevin Van Otterdijk raced well on day 3, finishing with a 3rd place and a 2nd place in the 2 races, he was surpassed by Jean Paul de Trazegnies from Peru, who scored a bullet (1st place) in both of the final races, to be crowned the Sunfish Youth Worlds Champion, claiming 1st place by a single point over Kevin Van Otterdijk from Curacao.

Eugene Kendrikx from Curacao and Ivan Aponte from Puerto Rico took 3rd and 4th place.  Curacao finished with 6 of the top 10 youth sailors.  you can see the full results of all 8 races at Sunfishworlds2011.com.

Sunfish Youth Champion: Jean Paul (photo by Kurt Peterson)

as usual, there are great photos from days 2 and 3 of racing, as well as some of the closing/award ceremonies at the Sunfish Worlds 2011 Flickr stream.

photo by Kurt Peterson

photo by Bea Moedt

today will be busy still at Curacao, as they now prepare for the Sunfish Open Worlds racing, with check-in and a practice race held this afternoon.

sunfish youth worlds 2011: day 1

the 1st day of the Sunfish Youth Worlds is in the books, with 5 of the top 10 sailors (and 3 of the top 6) so far from the host country Curacao.  Jean Paul de Trazegnies from Peru holds 1st place with 7 points, but Ivan Aponte from Puerto Rico and Eugene Hendrikx from Curacao are 1 and 2 points behind him respectively.  for the full (provisional results), see the Sunfish Worlds 2011 website.

also, stop by and check out all the great photos posted at the Sunfish Worlds 2011 set on Flickr.

from Tuesday’s pictures, setting up the sailboats:

photo by Bea Moedt

and from Wednesday’s pictures, some great pictures of the opening ceremonies, and this one of a sailor heading out for a practice sail.

photo by Kurt Peterson

also, from Laser Performance on Twitter (@LaserPerform), check out a video of the “Harvest Dance” at the opening ceremonies – click on the video link to check the dancing and vibrant colors for the dancer’s outfits.

sunfish worlds 2010 – photos

here are some more fantastic photos (by Marianne Lenos) from the Sunfish Worlds in Italy.  I really liked these 2, but there are a bunch more great ones so check them out:

I love the t-shirt in this picture, from Marianne’s photos of the race participants.

per usual, a huge thank you to Gerard from the Netherlands for tipping me off to all the news and photos from the Sunfish Worlds.  he also noted that the Dave Thomas Memorial Award was given to Justin van Aanholt, from the Netherlands Antilles.

sunfish worlds – final results

the final race (#10) must have been loaded with excitement.  starting out in 2nd place, down by only 5 points, David Mendelblatt sailed a great race, taking 1st place in that final race, while the current 1st place Jonathan Martinetti sailed maybe his worst race of the event, finishing in 6th place – resulting in a tie for total points!  the tiebreaker is based on the number of 1st place finishes, so Martinetti would maintain his 1st place, having won 3 races to Mendelblatt having only 2 1st place finishes.  that must have been a very exciting race to cap off the Sunfish Worlds in Italy!  six Junior sailors in the top 10, too!

1 JONATHAN DAVID MARTINETTI, ECU, JUNIOR 26 pts (3 1st place races)
2 DAVID MENDELBLATT, USA 26 (2 1st place races)
3 ARD VAN AANHOLT, AHO, JUNIOR 40
4 JUST VAN AANHOLT, AHO, JUNIOR 45
5 CONNER BLOUIN, USA 62
6 KEVIN VAN OTTERDIJK, AHO, JUNIOR 78
7 JOSE VICENTE GUTIERREZ, VEN, JUNIOR 82
8 COR VAN AANHOLT, AHO 84
9 PAUL-JON PATIN, USA 87
10 MATHIEU DE BY, NED, JUNIOR 100

official results from the Sunfish Class can be found here (.pdf file), with this press release:

Tuscany, Italy – Jonathan Martinetti of Ecuador has won the 2010 Sunfish World Championship. On the last day of the regatta there was a single race planned. Martinetti entered the day with a narrow 5 point lead of David Mendelblatt. Mendelblatt went on to win the final race, while Martinetti was 6th – creating a tie on points. By virtue of his 3 first place finishes, Jonathan won the tie breaker.

Both Jonathan and David are to be congratulated for sailing an amazing regatta. In addition, the youth of our Sunfish Class have demonstrated that they will be a force to be reckon with for many years as Junior sailors took six of the top 10 positions overall!

Thank you to the Italian Sunfish Class for hosting the event. Get ready for Curacao in 2011!

Ellen from the Texas Sunfish Racing Circuit shares her thoughts on the Final Day at Worlds.

My position did not change – I finished up in 39th. I actually did better than I expected, so I am very happy. This was one FUN week. This is the first regatta that I have ever been to that I did not want to end.

as I mentioned on day 1, there were some fit-up issues with the daggerboards – here are some photos, complete with “repairs” made to make it fit into the daggerboard slot.

daggerboard (photo by Marianne Lenos)

here are some photos of the racing from day 3 of the Sunfish Worlds (photos again by Marianne Lenos):

sunfish worlds 2010 – day 3 results

Jonathan Martinetti continues to hold on to lead after 3 days of racing at the Sunfish Worlds in Italy, but David Mendelblatt from the USA had a great day and is only 5 points back in 2nd place, and the young Van Aanholt racers from Curacao are gaining ground fast, taking 3rd and 4th place.  over at the Sunfish Forum, Dereck Jackson (president of the US Sunfish Class) notes:

I cannot remember the last time we had a World Championship with this many young sailors in the front. Four out of the top 5 are 22 years old or younger. There are another two juniors in the top 10 right now. It is great to see!

full results can be found at the Sunfish Class website (here, .pdf file).

1 JONATHAN DAVID MARTINETTI, ECU    20 pts  
2 DAVID MENDELBLATT, USA            25
3 ARD VAN AANHOLT, AHO, JUNIOR      38
4 JUST VAN AANHOLT, AHO, JUNIOR     40
5 CONNER BLOUIN, USA                49
6 JOSE VICENTE GUTIERREZ, VEN       74
7 KEVIN VAN OTTERDIJK, AHO, JUNIOR  75
8 COR VAN AANHOLT, AHO              75
9 PAUL-JON PATIN, USA               83
10 MATHIEU DE BY, NED, JUNIOR       93

it looks like tomorrow is supposed to be a day off, with a final (10th) race on Friday, I would imagine to be followed by closing ceremonies and the like.

also, here is a report on day 2 from Ellen with the Texas Sunfish Racing Circuit, that I didn’t include in my day 2 results.

Chris Williams also posted this bit of history over at the Sunfish Forum today about the last time the Sunfish Worlds were in Italy back in 1985, partially quoted here:

With the lay day in Italy upon us, I thought I would relate a few things that happened the last time the Worlds were in Italy. That was back in 1985, and it was the third time the Worlds had been in Europe – it had already been in Italy once previously, and also in Holland.  The boats were made in Italy – I assume the blades, spars, etc. were from the US. As we were to find out, the Italians made a very durable boat. The regatta was in Riccione, about 125 miles from Punta Ala, but on the east coast of Italy. The regatta site in Riccione was right on a beach on the Adriatic, with no cove or bay to launch from.

stop by the Sunfish Forum for the rest of the story… it was pretty neat to read.