50th Sunfish Worlds

Wavedancer

Upside down?
Staff member
One hundred expert racers on the line in Sarasota (FL) tomorrow (Monday 10/25). Who do you favor for the win; one of the prior Words Champs? There are quite a few of them.
Participants are about evenly distributed between the US and other countries; I counted
Bahamas 1
Bonaire 7
Chili 7
Columbia 6
Curacao 3
Ecuador 6
Guatemala 3
Peru 9
US Virgin Islands 1
Venezuela 3

Unfortunately, no entries from Brazil and Argentina; both countries had a World Champion in the past.

There is a lot of activity (short videos etc.) on the Facebook Sunfish site. You don't have to be an FB 'member' to see most of it :).
US Sunfish Class | Facebook

Comments, insides etc. are welcomed...
 
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There were some Italians signed up, but they withdrew - assume travel restrictions from Europe to the US caused that.
 
The results have been updated to include all 100 participants in one table;
50th Sunfish World Championship on Yacht Scoring - A complete web based regatta administration and yacht scoring program
Three races were run today; I gather from the video posted by Lee Montes that it was windy.

Jonathan Martinetti, 2010 World champ, is in first place with scores of 2, 1 and 3; can't do much better than that! Another sailor from Ecuador, Matias Dyck, is in second place.

What is concerning that at least eight sailors had breakdowns of some kind and filed a protest. As of now, at least five of these protests were allowed. Consequently, there will be changes in the results from what is currently posted.
 
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1st day recap via the Sunfish Class: International Sunfish Class Association

After three races, Jonathan Martinetti from Equator sits atop the leaderboard with six points after finishing a very consistent 2-1-3 considering the challenges of staring in a fleet of 100 boats. Right behind Jonathan is Peruvian Jean Paul De Trazegnies who suffered a breakdown in Race 1 and was granted redress averaging his 5-2 in Races 2 and 3. In third is Martinetti’s countryman Matias Dyck who, after finishing 1-3-8, is carrying 12 points into Day 2. Peter Stanton from the USVI stands in fourth at 22 points with Americans Conner Blouin and Jeff Olson in fifth and sixth with 23 and 24 points, respectively. Blouin got the bullet in race 3.
 
Lots of action today (Tue) with four additional races. It looks like there were many black flag (BFD) and UFD disqualifications.
But by now one score can be dropped.
I predict that the (initial) score board will have many question marks because of protests, just like yesterday. We will need to be patient.

For those not so familiar with the scoring system, a UFD score counts as a Black Flag score
:(
 
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Jonathan Martinetti is sailing a pretty dominating regatta so far - lowest score a 3rd after 6 races.
 
Jonathan Martinetti is sailing a pretty dominating regatta so far - lowest score a 3rd after 6 races.
And in the lead after seven strong races. But Jean-Paul de Trazegnies is within striking distance (10 points). There are no more throw-outs, unless they sail 12 races. With such a large fleet Jonathan cannot afford to match race Jean-Paul because if they both end up somewhere in the middle, the third-place person will win the regatta. BTW, Jean-Paul is a former World Champion as well.
 
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Not only are there a record number of equipment breakdowns for such an important event, but 15 disqualifications in race 4 must be a record as well. Race 5 was relatively 'smooth sailing' (from the Race Committee (RC) viewpoint), but race 6 saw another 15 disqualifications.
I don't know how the RC did this, but it is very hard to document so many 'early overs' in a sea of 100 boats (with identical sails). Perhaps they had multiple 'spotters'?
 
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“A record number of equipment breakdowns” doesn’t give me much hope that LP’s manufacturing and quality control is improving at all.
 
Not only are there a record number of equipment breakdowns for such an important event, but 15 disqualifications in race 4 must be a record as well. Race 5 was relatively 'smooth sailing' (from the Race Committee (RC) viewpoint), but race 6 saw another 15 disqualifications.
I don't know how the RC did this, but it is very hard to document so many 'early overs' in a sea of 100 boats (with identical sails). Perhaps they had multiple 'spotters'?
transponders? i dont know how they could score multiple boats crossing at the same time without. but i honestly have no clue how its done.
 
transponders? i dont know how they could score multiple boats crossing at the same time without. but i honestly have no clue how its done.
I am not there and don't know either how they do it.
More in general, there could be spotters on both ends of the very long line.
Typically, a spotter (or two) will call the 'over early' numbers into a recorder and may video the start as well. Not easy at all, because this has to be done quickly.

Transponders have been considered by race organizers, but that would require additional 'technology' and be quite costly.
Another way that has been mentioned is the firing of a bullet from a starting cannon. If your sail ended up with a hole, you would be disqualified. :)
Considering that Sunfishes don't have a jib, this method looks dead on arrival though.
 
The plan is to start the racing at 10 AM Thursday. The worst of the weather is expected after lunch so they are starting early.

Fridays wind looks really strong - hopefully it will not be too much for racing. They have seven races complete out of a planned twelve.
 
"Not only are there a record number of equipment breakdowns for such an important event, but 15 disqualifications in race 4 must be a record as well."

The answer: NO. At the 1991 Sunfish Worlds (Curacao) there were 19 (!) sailors with DSQ, UFD or BFD...

2. 2021 R6: 16
3. 2021 R4: 15
4. 2019 R1: 12
5. 2019 R8: 10
 

Looks like Jonathan Martinetti is the 50th world champion. He coasted in the 11th and final race and used it as his throw out. Never finished lower than 3rd place in the previous 10 races. That's pretty dominating sailing.
 
Looks like Jonathan Martinetti is the 50th world champion. He coasted in the 11th and final race and used it as his throw out. Never finished lower than 3rd place in the previous 10 races. That's pretty dominating sailing.
Absolutely!

A shout out to Lee Montes who gave us on the water 'snapshots' of what was going on. A true multitasker with a phone in his hand and a Go-Pro type camera on the stern of his fish. How did he do all that and still get good results?

Emily Wagner (class secretary) did a great job as well with her many videos on various aspects of the regatta. All on Facebook; I am not a member but was able to see most of them.
US Sunfish Class | Facebook
 
The results are still preliminary, at the moment 7 open protests, bit Jonathan Martinetti IS the new world champion. Emily just did an interview with him. I'll download it from FB and upload to YT (like i did with many of the Lee M videos).
 
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Tnx! i now know that it is either sail OR do the webstuff. On Bonaire i was doing 'hopscotching' (is that english?) both, with not the best result. Next year Italy! For me that is 'around the corner' and i will SAIL there (Lake Garda is sailing Mekka). Today i jumped in my RS Aero, but i promised my self to prepare myself with lots of Sunfish miles.
 

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In my result list i have added a "AG#" column: AgeGroup rank.

De pink row is Top Woman.

The results are still preliminary!! (still 3 open protest at the moment). I do not expect a new champ hahaha.
 
While waiting for those protest (and totally off -topic): Check out this cool video. Me ripping along at 17 knots in my RS Aero (move to 4:00 and see the gust make the boat accellerate from 10 to 17 knots in the blink of an eye).
 
The results are still preliminary, at the moment 7 open protests, bit Jonathan Martinetti IS the new world champion. Emily just did an interview with him. I'll download it from FB and upload to YT (like i did with many of the Lee M videos).
This includes five protests due to 'equipment failure'. By now a total of 38 protests have been filed. That jury deserves a beer (or two).
 
While waiting for those protest (and totally off -topic): Check out this cool video. Me ripping along at 17 knots in my RS Aero (move to 4:00 and see the gust make the boat accellerate from 10 to 17 knots in the blink of an eye).
Very cool. What body of water is that?
 
What are some of the reasons that someone might be disqualified?
Violating any of the rules in here can get you a DSQ RRS2005 (sailing.org) Rules 10, 11 and 18 are among the most infringed, I'd say. In the case of the guy with the 4 in one day, all four were for being over the starting line before the start. Three were under the black flag, and one under the U flag. If you search Black Flag or U Flag in the rules I linked to, you can read what he violated.

BTW, US Sailing publishes a few appendices not in the World Sailing rules I linked to, but US Sailing doesn't post the rules online for free. Hope that helps.
 
Thanks Chris.
Yes, almost all of these disqualifications were due to sailors being over the line at the start.
More in general,
It's never easy to get a good start (clean air and full speed) in a race, and with a group of experienced racers, it's even harder. You really don't want to be in the second row or further back because of all the bad air you will be getting after the start which will put you further behind. Therefore, there's a mad scramble (roughly) one minute prior to the start to be up there in the first row because everyone wants to be there. Furthermore, the starting line may be difficult/impossible to visualize because the flags on the beginning and end of the line may be obscured by all the (flapping) sails around you. With about 30 seconds to go many will power up, but this may be too early, depending on the conditions. Nevertheless, you don't want to be left behind which may lead to a whole bunch being 'over early'.:eek:
 
What are some of the reasons that someone might be disqualified?
Writers here are calling UFD penalties and BFD penalties disqualifications. They are penalties the same as OCS, but with more qualifications. Google World Sailing Racing Rules of Sailing to understand the difference.

There were MANY applications for Redress regarding the equipment failures. Many long strings of info on the ISCA and USSCA Facebooks. Hiking straps, boom blocks, travelers, traveler mounts, leaking masts, halyard cleats, rudder gudgeons, one leaky boat ... New boats from a new plant with new employees with an assortment of oddly applied parts, some stupid errors (like a drill too large for the standard stainless rivet for the boom blocks) ... LP sent Brent Richards to the regatta site to gain an understanding of all the failures. The Dealer who bought all the boats to make it happen reported regularly and has been assured improvements are coming. The boats were selling anyway.
 
Thanks for the update from the Worlds. Leaking masts have been a long-time thing, but everything else is completely unacceptable.

Note that the penalty for UFD, BFD and OCS is the same as for DSQ. That is because you are disqualified from the race for violating those rules. Using BFD, OCS and UFD in the scoring provides more detail as to what caused the sailor to be disqualified. One of the prior posts has a link to the Racing Rules of Sailing if anyone is interested.
 

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