Wrap up with Andrew Tarboton

Point Yacht Club

Interview with Andrew Tarboton

Wrap-up 49er World Championships: 16 – 21 November

Settling back home in Hamble, near Southampton in the UK, Andrew Tarboton is recovering from one of the toughest regattas he, and his sailing partner Graeme Willcox have ever had the honour of competing in.

The only South African representatives took on the worlds’ best in this year’s 49er World Championships in San Isidro, a province just north of Buenos Aires. The six day regatta hosted by Club Nautico was their best hope for qualifying for the Rio Olympics.

With only three slots in the 49er class for Rio up for grabs, the hopeful Safa sailors were in for a long shot, “The regatta was a fiercely fought spectacle of the world’s best sailors, with all the top teams’ present gunning for the three spots available. As it turned out, those three places were taken by teams finishing in the top 10 overall, showing just how tough it was.”

“Buenos Aires is a really challenging sailing venue due to many factors including the brown water making it difficult to read the wind, the shallow water making the chop really short and steep, and the storms...” emphasising, Tarboton regales.

“And none more so than the fourth day of the regatta, the first day of the finals. We missed out on Gold fleet and so the race committee had sent us out first for the day.  There were many storms swirling around the area, affecting the wind and conditions dramatically. We got off to a decent start with good boat speed and were picking off those in front of us well.”

“We rounded the bottom mark in the top 10 and decided initially that the left hand side would pay and thus picked off a few more places. We noticed a big right hand shift near the top of the course and decided to go to the right on the downwind leg. The five boats that rounded the top mark in front of us decided to go left downwind, but we stuck to our game plan and pushed right into the new wind and building pressure.”

“This paid off and the boats that had gone left were far behind near the bottom of the course. The downwind was really tricky as the big wind quickly built the chop, but we managed to keep the boat going well and hold off the other boats right to the victorious gun at the finish. This was a huge relief and a sense of real achievement set in with that race win.” stated an obviously chuffed Tarboton.

Talking about the conditions and courses, Pietermaritzburg’s Tarboton said, “We sailed windward-leeward courses - starting at the bottom of the course, making our way into the wind, back downwind, into the wind again, and finally downwind to the finish, generally a two lap race.”

“The wind was generally light and switchy, with very little pressure behind it. In the three weeks we were there, there were only two windy days which suited us more.”

“Our final result was 52 out of 61 boats. We were aiming for top 50, but just missed that goal. Fifteen races were completed over the six days, and in those races we scored a first, an eighth and a few results in the teens, so we are walking away with a few positives.”

“Many of the big names were in the Silver fleet with us – we were up against a Chilean, Swiss and Uruguay team; the second Austrian, Belgian, German, Italian and French teams; two British and Korean teams; a few teams from New Zealand and Argentina; all of the Swedish and American teams and the top Brazilian, Indian and Canadian teams.  Among these teams were well-known competitors and teams ranked in the top 25 in the world. Due to the strength of the 49er fleet no one is guaranteed qualification into gold fleet.”

Chatting about what they learnt while they were in Argentina, Tarboton recounts, “The weather was very kind to us, providing warm temperatures and very challenging sailing. Frequent storms meant the wind direction was never really settled, and the wind strength was generally light.  We found ourselves struggling for straight line boat speed through the chop and due to lack of time training in those conditions, so we have learned a lot about boat setup for power, and how to keep the boat driving in such tricky conditions. We have learned also that the work we have put in this year with our starts and boat handling is paying off and we are moving up the fleet.”

Looking ahead, Tarboton mentions, “We now have a week or so to gather our thoughts from the regatta and formulate a strategy moving forward into the winter training months here in the UK. We hope to get some coaching from one of the top guys in the class and build up to our next event, the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma in April 2016.”

But for now, the dream of racing at Rio 2016 is not to be!