Keeping it in the family
Ruben and Rita Booth are Australia’s newest sailing world champions, clinching the 2019 Nacra 15 title in a tight battle off Marseille.
05 November 2019
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The brother and sister combination were two points behind Germany’s Jesse Lindstadt and Lisa Rausch entering the final day of the regatta, which featured 80 boats from all over the world.
In the last three races the Booths grabbed control with second, sixth and third placings, while the German pairing recorded 12th, third and seventh. After a final countback of the 11 races sailed, Ruben and Rita emerged the new world champs, three points clear of the Germans. Andrea Spagnolli and Alice Cialfi of Italy finished third overall.
Ruben and Rita’s long hours of training paid-off in the highly variable winds and seas states experienced at the Nacra Worlds that wrapped-up on October 25.
That the Booth duo grabbed the top honours many not surprise some, given they have an impeccable pedigree in catamaran sailing.
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Their Dad is four-time Olympian, silver and bronze medallist, and 13-time World Champion, Mitch Booth.
Mitch, who is based in Spain these days, and Ruben placed fourth in the F18 Worlds in July behind fellow Aussies Darren Bundock and Conor Nicholas, who took out the title.
Aussie crews featured strongly in the results up against the world’s best youth Nacra teams. Another Booth sibling, Jordi, teamed-up Janneke Fock to finish seventh, while Georgia Payne and Nathan Bryant rounded-out the top ten.
Nathan, from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club and Georgia from Mandurah backed -up their tenth with a fifth in the Nacra 15 foiling worlds.
They are now focused on the upcoming summer series where they will compete for the 2020 Youth worlds spot.
The semi-foiling Nacra 15 is seen as the stepping-stone to the Olympic Nacra 17 class. Australia is particularly strong in Nacra 15 class, with Will Cooley and Rebecca Hancock taking gold in the Mixed Nacra 15 at the 2019 Hempel Youth Sailing World Championships in Gdynia, Poland in July.
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