French domination at the Youth Sailing Worlds

One team is determined to dominate at the 45th Youth Sailing World Championships as the SL16 fleet brought in 2016 with a bang.

As the majority of the record 425 sailors enjoyed New Year’s day in Langkawi, Malaysia, the SL16 sailors went to work in a 20 knot breeze.

Using the rest day to catch up on their race schedule, one team just doesn’t seem to care what day or what country they have to race, they will win anyway. France’s Louis Flament and Charles Dorange sailed in the morning’s yellow fleet and again proved too good for the rest of the field.

Sirena SL16 Fleet.
Day4, 2015 Youth Sailing World Championships,
Langkawi, Malaysia

With another perfect day, the seemingly unstoppable duo returned with four bullets to add to their previous days four from four. They could be leaving Langkawi with an arsenal if they continue in this rich vein of form.

So can anyone stop them? Well New Zealand’s Tamryn Lindsay and William Mckenzie were their closest rivals in the yellow fleet with three seconds and a third, and the French pair see them as potential rivals.

A cool, calm and collected Flament outlined his thoughts on the day and who could challenge him and his crew saying, “We had more confrontations today with New Zealand and it progressed in to some great races. It was more difficult than yesterday and we improved our sailing, so we are pleased with our performance.”

“We haven’t sailed against Australia and the USA yet and they are two and three in the standings. And New Zealand are a serious competitor in the future.”

USA and Australia sailed in the afternoon blue fleet and it was mixed fortunes for the teams. Australia continued to sail well and scored two bullets and two second places, while USA could only manage a 3-4-5 and a discarded 6.

Italy Sirena SL16 Open Crew ITAMG142 Maria Giubilei Italy Sirena SL16 Open Helm ITAGU1 Gianluigi Ugolini Day4, 2015 Youth Sailing World Championships,
Langkawi, Malaysia

A team that took advantage of USA’s drop was Italy. Scores of 1-1-2-3 showed an improvement on the first race day and it is down to Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Guibilei getting used to the subtle differences from their usual sailing style as Guibilei explained, “We have some problems because we haven’t sailed on this boat many times, normally we sail the Nacra 17, but we do what we can. There are many differences and sometimes it’s difficult as we do something one way on the Nacra and different on this, but we try.”

Their top three finishes moved them up to fourth place overall, joint on 20 points with USA. New Zealand are third on 16 points, Australia are second on 10 and the irrefutable leaders are France on 7 points.

The SL16 is made up of 14 teams, and the question is can any of them break the monopoly the French team have built on bullets at the moment, or could they go through the whole regatta unbeaten? French helm Lament doesn’t give much away, but he is certainly excited by the prospect if they could, “It would be amazing. But it will take a really great performance. The competition is very good and I think we have the advantage that it is windy and we love these conditions. But yeah, it would be amazing if we could win every race.”

The home team, Malaysia’s Ahmad Khairulhafiz Ahmad Khmbali and Muhamad Fauzan Ruslan, improved on their opening day performance as they scored a 4-6-4 before claiming second in the final yellow fleet race of the day. They are sitting in tenth on 36 points.

Today also saw the Nations trophy table start to take shape with countries gunning to take bragging rights home from Langkawi. Thanks to SL16 sailors Shaun Connor and Sophie Renouf, Australia currently hold top spot on 255 points while near neighbours New Zealand are just behind on 240. Despite the scores Flament and Dorange are piling up for the French team, they are third on 223 points.

Racing continues tomorrow at 10:00 local time with all fleets scheduled to race.

By Richard Aspland

French SL16 Sailors Tagged As Youth Worlds Favourites

France’s Louis Flament and Charles Dorange have the favourites tag pinned on them at the 2015 Youth Sailing World Championships having taken the title in Tavira, Portugal last year.

From 27 December through to 3 January the high flying French duo will in amongst the 16-boat SL16 fleet aiming to defend their title in Langkawi, Malaysia.

2014 SL16 Youth Worlds fleet

The Langkawi Youth Worlds will break all previous records in terms of participation and number of nations. More than 430 sailors from 80 nations across nine fleets are registered to sail on the Malaysian waters off of Langkawi. New and returning nations make up the numbers to easily surpass the previous best of 67 set in Tavira, Portugal last year.

As returning gold medallists and 2015 World Champions, Flament and Dorange come into the Youth Worlds as the ones to beat but they won’t be taking anything for granted. “Our title in 2014 gives us a little advantage because we have been there before and others have not, but we do not underestimate our opponents. Nothing is certain and it is a long way to victory,” the pair said.

The French duo took seven race victories in the 2014 series and whilst they made some mistakes along the way, allowing their rivals to see them in their sights heading into the final race, they made no errors on the last day, taking the bullet and with it gold.

Their bond in the boat stems from a long term partnership that started when they were just seven and ten respectively. By looking up to their idols the pair always knew what they wanted to do as they explained, “When we saw Billy Besson [Nacra 17 and Formula 18 World Champion] racing the SL16 we wanted to be like him because he is a World Champion. We always wanted to be like him so we are happy that we are a world champion, like him.”

Besson is a three time Nacra 17 World Champion and is arguably the favourite for Rio 2016 glory. Whether the pair can follow in their hero’s footsteps remains to be seen but the journey to stardom begins at the Youth Worlds and a second gold in Langkawi could set them on their way.

Further competition for medals will come from Australia’s Shuan Connor and Sophie Renouf, Great Britain’s Jack Butters and James King, New Zealand’s Tamryn Lindsay and Will McKenzie as well as the USA’s Mark and Anderson Brunsvold.

The SL16 fleet will be sharing eight boats throughout the Youth Worlds with a qualifying series and a final series. Boats have been assigned to blue and yellow fleets for the opening day of racing based on their performance at the last four Youth Worlds.

Flament and Dorange at the 2014 Youth Worlds

Four races on the opening day are scheduled for the blue and yellow fleets. Boats will then be assigned fleets on a daily basis based on their overall position. Each fleet is scheduled to sail four races each day leading up to the final day. On the final day the fleets will be split into Gold and Silver where the final placings will be decided.

Sailors will start to arrive at the Langkawi venue on 27 December where they will receive the supplied equipment from Ovington, UpMarine, Nautivela, Sirena Voile, Neil Pryde and Laser Performance/Maclaren.

From there, the ceremony on 28 December will signal the start of the Youth Worlds before racing commences on 29 December. Racing will run through to Sunday 3 January with Friday 1 January a lay day for the sailors.