Rising to the occasion

A third place in the one and only race of the day was enough for three-time Olympian Jean-Baptist Bernaz from France to take home the overall win at his first Sail Melbourne event.

“We had a little wait on shore today but then got one race in. It was my first time here and it was really great to sail here. It was a good week and I’m happy to win,” Bernaz said.

Australian Sailing Team’s Matt Wearn, who has already been selected to represent Australia at the Tokyo 2020 Games, posted a fifth to finish the regatta four points behind Bernaz in overall second. Australian Sailing Squad’s Luke Elliott jumped from sixth into third place.

With the event ranked as the 2020 Laser Oceania Championships, Wearn won the Oceania Champion title with Luke Elliott following in second and New Zealand’s Thomas Saunders in third.

“It has been a pretty good regatta. It has been pretty breezy in some testing conditions so it was nice to stretch your legs a little bit and do some hiking on the last day,” Matt Wearn said.

“We have had a great competition here with nearly 70 boats and pretty high quality as well so I’m happy with where I am standing at the moment. There’s obviously still a lot of stuff I need to polish off on, a few things in the starts and things I’m not really doing a 100% right so hopefully between this and the Worlds I can polish it all off and be good to go in February for the world championships,” Wearn added with the upcoming world championships in mind.

Two time Olympian and former world champion Rutger van Schaardenburg from the Netherland won the final race of the regatta and finished 15^th overall.

Olympic champion Marit Bouwmeester from the Netherlands took home the win in the women’s Laser Radial and held on to her lead with an eleventh place in the last race. Louise Cervera from France was the winner of the final race and finished in 25^th overall.

Following a consistent regatta, including two race wins in the eight-race series and dropping Sunday’s black-flagged race, Bouwmeester was happy with her pre-worlds event that saw her finish six points ahead of second-placed Olympic silver medallist Annalise Murphy (IRL).

“It has been really good! We have been here for Nationals and now Sail Melbourne and I think the organisation is doing a great job and there are so many volunteers, which is great,” Bouwmeester said about Sail Melbourne.

In the Invited classes, Sail Melbourne International also included the Australian Championships of the International 505 Class with American World Champions Mike Holt and Rob Woelfel taking home the overall win after winning four out of the eight-race series and posting a third and second place on the final day.

“It has been a fantastic week. Great breeze, really good racing and good race management – we have had a spectacular time. And some interesting weather as well,” Mike Holt said about the event.

“We got beaten quite a few times so we have had great competition, we have been pushed hard by all the guys here in different conditions. It has been challenging, it has been tough and it has been fun. We will definitely be back. We have been here every year now for five years, we have had a great time so we would love to come back,” Holton added.

South Australians Robin Deussen and David Snoad took out the Australian Championships placing second overall and first Australian boat.

Western Australians Christoph Paterson and Thor Schoenhoff won the first race on the final day and finished third overall, while South Australians Malcom and Angus Higgins won the last race to finish sixth overall.