Sail Nova Scotia will host the 2022 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 World Sailing Championships from August 31 to September 5. This is the first time the championships will be hosted in Atlantic Canada.
The event will take place in St. Margaret’s Bay, located just outside Halifax. More than 400 sailors from more than 30 countries are expected to compete.
“We are excited to welcome the world’s best sailors to Nova Scotia in 2022,” said Geoff Cooke, CEO of Sail Nova Scotia. “St. Margaret’s Bay is one of the most beautiful sailing venues in the world and we can’t wait to show it off to the world.”
PREVIEW: 2022 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 World Championships
There were numerous nosedives and capsizes in conditions that reached 27 knots with 1.5-metre waves. Chris Taylor and Rhos Hawes (GBR) and Erwan Fischer and Clément Pequin (FRA) each won their first 49er World Championship races. The Dutch World Championships chit-chatted their way to a dominant first day in the 49erFX fleet, while Finland and Sweden had a solid first day in the Nacra 17 fleet, but no one can compete with the Olympic Champions from Italy.
How to Watch the 2022 World Championships of the 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17:
The contests will be held at St. Margaret’s Bay, Nova Scotia, from August 31 to September 5, and the top Olympic sailors in the world in the 49er (men’s pair), 49erFX (women’s pair), and Nacra 17 (mixed pairs) Olympic classes will get a chance to shine in front of a national audience. Beginning September 2, the 2022 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 World Championships will be live-streamed on CBC Sports digital platforms. From September 2 to 5, Canadian sailing fans may watch the action live on the free CBC Gem streaming service, cbcsports.ca, and the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices. The feeds will contain the final round of qualifying races, the final series, and the medal races.
The 2022 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 World Championships will be held in St. Margaret’s Bay, Nova Scotia, from Wednesday, August 31 to September 5, and will feature 141 teams and close to 300 athletes, including Canada’s Tokyo 2020 Olympians Ali ten Hove and Mariah Millen in 49erFX, and Will Jones and Evan DePaul in 49er.
Hubbards, Nova Scotia, Canada — In preparation for the 2022 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 World Championships, the Hubbards Community Waterfront has been substantially rebuilt. What was once a bustling fish processing business that had fallen into disrepair after decades of decline will now be a permanent access point to fantastic sailing.
Overall, Canada will be represented by 14 teams and 28 athletes, including Sail Canada National Team members and Nova Scotia’s local favorites Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance from Chester, N.S., who won the bronze medal at the 2021 49erFX European Championships and posted the best Canadian performance ever with a sixth-place finish at last year’s 49erFX World Championships. Arie Moffat, Sam Bonin of the Sail Canada Development Squad, and Ryan and Andrew Wood will compete.
“We are happy to be in Canada for the first time for our 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 World Championships,” stated Ben Remocker, CEO of the 49er Class Association. “The seas of Nova Scotia are internationally famous and will provide an excellent setting for this tournament.” Much is at stake for these sailors as they race to see who will be the Paris 2024 favorites.”
“Sailing is happy to work with CBC Sports to promote its sport in Canada by presenting the 2022 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 World Championships, which will be contested in our country at St. Margaret’s Bay, Nova Scotia,” stated Don Adams, CEO of Sail Canada. “With the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris less than two years away, we want Canadians to enjoy, better understand, and become more acquainted with the sport of sailing, which has a great tradition in our nation with nine Olympic and five Paralympic medals earned.” That will happen by seeing how hard our athletes prepare and are eager to represent the country in Paris and watching our young sailors compete in these rapid, action-packed races.”
The 2022 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 World Championships will also be webcast live on the 49er World Class Association’s YouTube website (www.youtube.com/user/49erSailingOffical) and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/49ersailing).
Competitions will be placed according to the following schedule (all times AT):
Qualifying Series races begin at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, August 31.
Qualifying Series races start at 11 a.m. on Thursday, September 1.
Qualifying Series races start at 11 a.m. on Friday, September 2.
Final Series Races start at 11 a.m. on Saturday, September 3rd.
The last Series Races begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday, September 4*.
Final Series Races / Medal Races start at 10 a.m.* on Monday, September 5.
*days of internet streaming on CBC Sports platforms
Full Update: 2022 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 World Championships
49erFX:
As local pair Georgia & Antonia Lewin (CAN) observed after a hard and, at times, the tumultuous first day of racing in the 49erFX, St Margarets Bay was not intended to be like this. “I’m not going to lie. “We haven’t seen such amazing circumstances with big waves and loads of wind in a long time,” Antonia, the oldest of the two sisters, said. “Today was a lot of fun, and I think we’re looking forward to moving up the leaderboard a bit.”
Georgia, who drives the Canadian skiff, was expecting a better start to the competition since they are currently 18th overall, tied on points with their fellow Canadians, Ali Ten Hove and Mariah Millen. “I think we’re both a little disappointed, but that’s to be anticipated given a lack of experience in severe winds.” Because their waves were so close together, we did a lot of nosediving today and had a few close calls, but we managed to maintain the mast above water.
Not everyone was as lucky, and even for the skiffs that stayed upright, it was challenging to avoid piling into the backs of competitors who had just pitchpoled. The Spanish squad appeared to be cleaner than most, with the two-time FX World Champion duo of Tamara Echegoyen and Paula Barcelo (ESP) sitting second after three races and Patricia Suarez and Maria Cantero (ESP) sitting fourth. “We recalled a few things today,” smiled Echegoyen, the Olympic Champion in women’s match racing from London 2012. “It’s simple for many teams to go quickly in flat water, but Paula and I prefer to race in the waves.” The technique is essential, and we learned a lot from the Alonsos [one of the most experienced men’s 49er teams].” Even though Barcelo admits it became a little worrisome near the end of the three-race session, the trainee doctor returned ashore with a broad, dazzling smile after such a complex, intense contest on the ocean.
Many teams admire the straight-line speed of the tall Swedes, Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler (SWE). “Yes, we have good speed, and that’s a fantastic thing to have,” Netzler said, but they also capsized. “I requested Wilma to tighten the jib a little more, and then I saw myself in the water, and she just let go of the tiller instead.” So we capsized to windward, but we made up some ground on the final lap by increasing our pace and taking a better lay line into the finish when we overtook a bunch of boats.”
“With the capsize, the positive thing is that we are good at putting the past in the past, so we move on and focus on what’s essential in the next moment,” Vilma continued. It’s a skill that’s simpler to explain than to execute, but it’s helping this new team to second place overall. NED 1, the sail number of Odile van Aanholt, who won the 2021 World Championship at a light-airs event in Oman eight months ago, is ahead of them. Van Aanholt, who just paired up with Annette Duetz, the two-time World Champion and Olympic bronze medalist from Tokyo 2020, proved she is no one-trick pony by dominating three breezy races with scores of 2,1,1. “I was astonished,” confessed van Aanholt. “Sometimes I still get a little teary when I have days like today because there’s such a good spirit in this team and so much confidence.”
Van Aanholt is almost always happy, smiling for most of the trip around the rugged race track. “There were times I felt I was having too much fun.” I was raving about the beautiful surroundings, but we were distracted by this drone following us around. However, you must concentrate intensely on the downwind because you do not want to send a pitchpole into the waves. Then, on the upwind, we felt like we had some time to talk, which was good.”
It’s time to talk. On such a big day, most sailors’ vocabulary is probably non-existent. There will be plenty of war stories to tell this evening as everyone finds shelter from the inclement weather that is scheduled to blow through by the morning for a calmer day on St Margarets Bay.
49er:
The 49er sailors competing in this world championship are no strangers to strong winds and high waves, yet only one race was completed on an opening day as the fleet struggled through the choppy and blustery downwind portions.
“We made it through all of our bearaway’s; it was the gybes that got us,” stated Tim Morishima of the Japanese crew. He added that the steep chop made avoiding packing the bow in the middle of a turn practically impossible. In one of the 49er fleets, all but around eight boats overturned during the day’s single race.
French sailors Erwan Fischer and Clement Pequin won the Blue fleet race, while British sailors Chris Taylor and Rhos Hawes won the Yellow fleet race.
With the last two Olympic Champions missing from this quadrennium, double bronze medalists Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel of Germany, as well as current world champions Bart Lambriex and Florian van der Werken of the Netherlands, are among the teams to watch this week. Today, both teams ended outside of the top ten.
Nacra 17:
Despite 24 winds and four to six-foot waves on St. Margaret’s Bay, there was no hesitation in hoisting the gennaker on the Nacra 17 course today for day one of the World Championships. “We had to send it for all it was worth,” stated Micah Wilkinson, a New Zealand Nacra driver, of his attitude to the day’s race. “There is never any retreat.”
Americans Ben Rosenberg and Cali Salinas, who were sailing their first worlds together, took a more cautious approach. “We really worked on regulating our speed downwind,” remarked American Nacra 17 driver Ben Rosenberg. He and Salinas are taking time away from their academic studies to sail in Nova Scotia.
However, Italy’s current Olympic champions Ruggerio Tita and Caterina Banti exhibited the “full-send,” foiling up and downwind and winning all three races. Wilkinson and crew Erica Dawson had a good look at the Italian’s technique, placing second in the last race and fifth overall.
“Now it’s kind of a race to see who can learn the fastest,” Wilkinson said of the fleet’s progress with the new adjustable rudders, which allow the boats to foil in more control upwind and downwind. The loads on the boat and the sailors have increased as a result of the considerably greater righting moment, which is taking its toll on both.
“Everyone is getting closer, except for the Italians at the front of the fleet,” Wilkinson observed. “We went close to them last time, but they were just getting started in the opening races.” They have incredible upwind boat speed.”
The Kiwis have attempted to disrupt a pattern in which three strong Italian teams have routinely finished in the top five at all major championships. Sinem Kurtbay and Akseli Keskinen of Finland and Emil Jarudd and Hanna Jonsson of Sweden, who finished second and third, had epic days on the water, with clean score lines sandwiching them between the leaders and Italian junior world champions Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei.
This world championship is still in its early stages, and it is far too early to discern any performance patterns. Still, the next two days are sure to bring more variable weather as the North Atlantic settles down after this ripping frontal passage moves eastward.
