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Hobie 14 Open World Championships
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Hobie Youth Challenge 2003

Travemunde, Germany
Saturday, July 26, 2003

Thorin Zeilmaker new Hobie 14 World Champion

Dutch sailor Thorin Zeilmaker today became the 13th Hobie 14 World Champion with a win in the final race of the 11 race World Championship concluded today in Travemunde, Germany. With an OCS hanging over his head from Race 3 onwards, Zeilmaker held his nerve and proved that consistency was the key to success. With top ten finishes in 9 of the 11 races, Zeilmaker was able to produce consistent finishes in the light shifty conditions as well as the fresher breezes on the last day.

However, it almost came completely came unstuck soon after the start of the last race. After getting a very good start and a good position out to the favoured left hand side of the course, he tacked, jumped out on trapeze, but without hooking on to the trapeze wire. He fell straight into the water but fortunately he was just able to get one hand back onto the side of the boat before it capsized. Pulling himself back onto the boat, it swung around and he had to put in two more tacks to get to the top mark, but still manage to round in 10th place. Even more fortunate for him was the fact that two of his closest rivals were just in front in 8th and 9th places. Zeilmaker stamped his authority on the event by going on to win the last race to win the event by a 12 point margin.

His Dutch compatriate Peter Manvis was not so fortunate in the last race, having a disastrous first leg, rounding the top mark towards the back of the fleet. Having moved to within 3 points of 2nd place with one race to go, this race would certainly have been his throwout race, so Manvis decided to sail back to the beach, although his consistency throughout the other races assured him of a fourth place finish.

German sailors Frank Suchanet and Joachim Webener also sailed well on the last day, with this group of four not taking any risks and not wanting to be too far from their close rivals. The four could be seen close together all the way around the course, particularly in the penultimate race where they finished within boat lengths of each other in 3,4,5 positions.

Conditions on the last day provided the best wind for the event, with a solid 12 knots greeting sailors. However, as has been the case for the event, there were some big holes in the course and what would look like a strong position sometimes quickly evaporated. The course today was much closer to the shore with wind around the weather mark typically lighter and more variable than on the bottom part of the course.

However, this didn't seem to deter the top sailors, especially Thorin Zeilmaker, who always managed to find the right side of the course, or that extra bit of breeze. Even a brief swim couldn't shake him and prevent him being crowned Hobie 14 World Champion - the first ever Dutch Hobie World Champion in 30 years!

14 Year Old Brits teach Olympic and World Champions how it is done!

Tom Phipps and Jonathan Cook from the UK confirmed their credentials as sailors to watch in the future as they completed their domination of both the Open and Youth Divisions of the Hobie 16 Spinnaker class. On their way to winning they managed to beat Gavin Colby, the current Hobie 16 World Champion as well as Mitch Booth, a dual Olympic Medallist and runner up in last year's Hobie 16 World Championships.

While the light conditions have obviously benefited the lighter sailors, their boat handling and consistency were the keys to their success. Both Colby and Booth were impressed by not only the skills of all the young sailors, but also their enthusiasm and willingness to learn.

Despite their dominance on the scoreboard, there was actually not much in terms of distance between the top eight boats of the fleet. The four British boats have obviously benefited from their training on the boats in the UK.

This event has been a resounding success and the youth sailors were excited to be able to sail against such top competition as Colby and Booth and were very appreciative of the help and supported by these world class sailors. Thanks go to Gavin and Mitch for participating in this event - not many sailors at this level put this amount of effort back into developing the youth of the sport.

We look forward to following the development of these young sailors and seeing their progress over the next few years.

Dragoons - Sailors graduate to Hobie 16

Having won the Dragoon event, Sam Newton and Nick Taylor decided to move things up a gear and sail the Hobie 16 today.

Local sailors crowned Hobie Tiger European Champions

German sailors Joerg Gosche and Christoph Bock were this afternoon crowned Hobie Tiger European Champions having lead the event from the end of the first day. Having constantly been top performers in the European Formula 18 circuit, this was the first major regatta win for Gosche and Bock and it couldn't have come at a better place, being held at their home yacht club. They performed best in the light and variable conditions with not only great speed, but the ability to find the best wind on the course.

Close behind in second place were the mixed British/Swiss team of Will Howden and Cori Camenisch who recovered well during the event after a capsize in the first race of the series.

Today's racing started in a good breeze and with this extra breeze Howden and Camenisch found some extra speed to pull away from the pack and win by almost a leg. Asked whether the win was due to sailing faster or smarter, Howden replied "when you are fast, you always look smart".

Sailors are already looking forward to next year's event in Cork, Ireland.

Clean sweep for Team Netherlands in the FX-one

The Dutch trio of Dirk Pool, Dirk Zwitser and Herre Deurloo made a clean sweep of the FX-One Euro Cup event, taking the first three places.

At last year's Multi-Europeans held in Holland, dual Olympic medallist Mitch Booth ran a clinic for the FX-One sailors. Following on from this training, the trio spent several weekends training together in preparation for this event. As part of this training they tried many variations on rig settings for this new class, but after much experimentation decided that the factory recommended settings proved the best.