Giles Scott wins gold at the Sailing World Cup

Giles Scott was an impressive winner of the Finn class gold medal at the opening 2015 regatta of the Sailing World Cup in Hyeres, France (OCEAN IMAGES/BRITISH SAILING TEAM)

The domination of Giles Scott in the heavy Olympic singlehanded Finn class brought another gold medal at the inaugural re-launch of the Sailing World Cup in Hyeres. Another Brit, Ed Wright, secured the bronze, sandwiching Vasilij Zbogar of Slovenia and confirmed Britain’s authority in the class which started with Iain Percy winning gold in Sydney and Ben Ainslie taking up the baton for three more.

The final GBR medal count was one gold, one silver, and two bronze. The silver was won by Nick Thompson in the Laser and the other bronze went to Luke Patience and Elliot Willis in the 470 Men. Disappointed were Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, who, after challenging at the top, ran out fourth in 470 Women.

This is the first of a five-regatta series which makes up the World Cup which is being run by the sport’s world governing body, the International Sailing Federation. ISAF has signed a long-term deal to run the finals in Abu Dhabi, and the SWC is part of a plan to run more of its own events and reduce reliability for funding on its share of the Olympic Games dividend.

Britain will run its SWC event in Weymouth in June as the updated version of the Sail for Gold regatta. The numbers will be reduced as the World Cup restricts entries from the 10 Olympic classes to those currently qualifying in the top 40. It is said to increase the intensity, though the intensity at the top was always considerable.

The Canadian John Craig, who was principal race officer at the last America’s Cup in San Francisco in 2013 is in overall charge and with a broader ISAF role is the Australian double Olympic gold medallist Malcolm Page, in charge of marketing and media. Page sees the establishment of the World Cup as one of the signs of ISAF switching from the back foot to the front foot under the presidency of Italy’s Carlo Croce.

He also predicts increased emphasis on the encouragement of grass roots sailing and the broadening the appeal of sailing from being US and Eurocentric to Africa, India, Asia, and Oceania. The search, as always, is on for sponsorship but the deal with Gazprom, which runs through next year, does not include promotion of a company with which the United States is uneasy, especially at the Miami world cup event. The youth development side of ISAF’s headquarters in Southampton is set to be geared up.

The changes have been broadly welcomed by Britain’s Royal Yachting Association, whose Olympic manager, Stephen Park, said: “Hyeres is a milestone event for the rejuvenation of the ISAF Sailing World Cup. All our top teams are competing and we are also looking forward to the test event for the 2016 Rio games in August.

“It’s great that the British Sailing Team has been competing for medals in five classes coming into the last day, although it’s slightly disappointing that we didn’t manage to improve our standings in the medal races. However we’ve come away with a reasonable medal count in line with our pre-event expectations so that’s pleasing.”

But it was Page who spoke about the continuing worry about the polluted state of the proposed race track in Rio, particularly the inshore race courses. They have been condemned as nothing short of trying to race in a cesspit and all attempts so far to fulfil the promise of a major clean-up have so far failed to impress. There are also problems with the rowing course, where recently 30 tonnes of dead fish had to be removed.

Page says there is continuing pressure from ISAF, though any major decisions would have to be left to the International Olympic Committee, with whom the Rio contract has been signed. These could include moving to another venue, again a major contractual hurdle. So far there has been no sustained campaign from either the athletes or the federations which they represent.

Further east on the Côte d’Azur, Marseille has been hosting a test event for the GC32 foiling catamaran class ahead of a five-event European tour which takes in Cowes for the three days ahead of the Round the Island Race at the end of June. The man to beat was Britain’s Chris Draper, released from America’s Cup responsibilities following Italy’s Prada-backed challenge from the America’s Cup.

He was at the helm for another Italian campaigner, Flavio Marazzi, but was challenged by former America’s Cup winner Ernesto Bertarelli in the latest of his racing boats to carry the Alinghi colours. Ernesto had flowing in from Boston to share the skipper’s role with the American Morgan Larson while also watching was his sister Dona. Her partner Yann Guichard has also joined the GC32 fray while at the same time working on an attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest circumnavigation of the world.

Dona has until September to decide whether to join the 12-14-strong crew of the 130-foot trimaran Spindrift, on which the pair has already set an Atlantic record. The boat has a new mast, lighter by 500kgs, which, with the new sails, will have meant a bill north of Euros500,000. “We share a passion, you have one life, so you must do what you can,” said Guichard.

Also taking a look at the class were Leigh McMillan and Peter Grenhalgh on behalf of Oman Sail, for whom they campaign an Extreme 40, whose series moves to Qingdao this weekend. There has long been talk of the 40-foot catamaran being replaced by a foiling version. Boss Mark Turner has always said no, but recently has softened that position and is said to have put out a design brief to look at a dual-purpose 38-footer that could sail both with and without foils.