sunfish north americans – open champion 2011

the Sunfish North American Open Championship wrapped up for 2011 with only 2 more races on the final day (Sunday).  instead of the planned (11) races, they were only able to get in (6) races due to un-cooperative weather.  after the final (2) races on Sunday, the Open Champion was Andres Ducasse from Chile, who beat out the 2011 Youth Champion, Iván E. Aponte Taboas from Puerto Rico, by just a single point.  Iván had led all racers after the 1st two days, but Andres’ finished a little stronger to pull out the victory.  the defending Sunfish North American’s champion Bill Brangiforte finished in 3rd place.  full results of the Open can be found here (.pdf file).

photo ©2011 Robert Migliaccio

pictures can again be found on this Flickr set and also on Facebook (photos all © 2011 Robert Migliaccio).  additionally, pictures can be found at EastBayRI.com (photos by Richard Dionne, Jr.).

sunfish north americans 2011 – youth champion

the Sunfish North Americans are going on right now in Barrington, Rhode Island, and the first 2 days were the Youth Championship.  the winner, Iván E. Aponte Taboas from Puerto Rico, made a clean sweep of it, winning 1st place in the first 6 races, so he didn’t even have to race in the final race (due to a throw-out score)!

if you recall, Iván also performed well at the Sunfish Youth Worlds (4th place) and Sunfish Open Worlds (12th place) that were just held down in Curacao.   the final results from all (7) races can be found here (.pdf file).  there is a great set of photos up on Flickr (photos all © 2011 Robert Migliaccio) from the Youth racing.

photo ©2011 Robert Migliaccio

Iván is currently in the lead for the Sunfish Open North Americans after just (2) races on Friday (.pdf results here).  racing should continue today and tomorrow, so we’ll see whether the young Iván can continue to perform well over the rest of the weekend.

additional coverage of the racing can be found at the Barrington Patch.

sunfish north american championships 2011

the Sunfish North American Championship is this week.  the event is hosted this year by the Barrington Yacht Club in Barrington, Rhode Island. racing will be on either windward-leeward or triangle courses, to be held on the Upper Narragansett Bay, northeast of the Providence River Channel.  the official notice-of-race (NOR) can be found here (.pdf file).

the North American Youth Championships starting today (July 19th) with check-in, clinics,  and practice races.  seven (7) races are scheduled for the Youth Championship, with racing to be held on Wednesday and Thursday.

the North American Open Championship check-in, registration, measuring, and practice racing begins on Thursday, and up to eleven (11) races will held on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

there is a Facebook page for the event, that is probably much more up-to-date with sailors attending, and I would imagine results might be posted there as well.

EastBayRI.com has a nice article previewing the event: Barrington Yacht Club hosting Sunfish championships.  the article has a nice quote from the co-chair of the event, Peter Brewster.

The Barrington Yacht Club is proud and has held this event back in 1992 and 2002 and hosted Sunfish events since the early sixties. This year, we have over 50 early registered Sunfish both in youth and adult divisions. Twenty are from other countries, including South and Central America. Puerto Rico, Dominion Republic, US and British Virgin Islands, and we expect the count to double.

 

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: final minute – final race [video]

this video was posted up at SunfishWorlds2011.com – it is the view from the signal boat during last minute leading up to the start of the final race at this year’s Sunfish Worlds Championship in Curacao.

you can hear the strong winds blowing past the video camera, and see how the signal boat is rolling up and down with the waves out on the water.  certainly some challenging conditions for the sailors to battle through.

[edit: just realized my post title is misleading... it's the final minute BEFORE the final race STARTS.  oops.]

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.