The series and final rankings for the year are wide open in every division so get your butts down to the last event to count in the series at Gerroa/Windang on 11/12 Feb 2017
nsw-wavesailing-2016-results-going-into-final-event-pdf
Event 4 Report
The NSW Wavesailing Tour is all bout great sailing, great locations, great people and having a great time on this amazing BLUE planet of ours. The competition has always been fierce but the most important feature of the tour is the fun filled celebration of our great sport so that more and more people join the party! The 2016/17 season has been a hell of a lot of fun so far and that’s thanks to all the good vibes from so many great people and some seriously amazing conditions! How good was Gerroa that event weekend?!!!!!
Now… back to the competition side for just a moment…
As we head into the final event of the NSW Wavesailing Championships the contest for top spots in Opens, Masters and Womens is tight and it will come down to the performance of every sailor in the final two days in Gerroa come February 11th and 12th.
In the Opens Francois has been very strong and very consistent with a 4th, 5th and 2.5th (incomplete finals result for Wanda) to put him in first place overall. He has sailed very well all season, showing remarkable energy, putting in a lot of time on the water every time we head out. That hard work and obvious and infectious love of the sport is paying off for him and if he can hold a top position in Gerroa he could be crowned the NSW Opens Champion.
But he’s not out of the woods yet… Hot on his heels is Jessica Crisp competing in the Opens this year. She is only 1 place behind Francois overall and has a 7th to drop if we get a 4th event result in Gerroa compared to Francois’ worst result of 5th so far. That has the potential to catapult her ahead of Francois in the overall rankings. Because of that potential 7th drop, Francois will have to beat Jess by at least two places in this final event to hold his position ahead of her and to do that he’ll have to be on his best game to hold off the late charge from this seasoned World Champion.
Those guys are both ripping but the biggest threat to both Francoise and Jessica for the overall Championship is going to be the ON-FIRE Forest Ladkin who, despite only 2 event results to his score card so far this season, is still lurking very dangerously in 5th overall – thanks to a 2nd and a 3rd place. The final event is in his back yard and no doubt he’s going to to be very, very hard to beat down there.
In the Masters we have a battle between Dean Hendie and Darren Pasco for the top spot with Dean ahead by 2 places going into the final Gerroa event thanks to an impressive victory in the epic Gerroa/Windang event a couple of months ago.
But… if Ollie Barter comes down from Queensland for the event or if Jason Juretic, Mike Preswick, Steve Robbo Robinson or the wiley One-Knot-Warren have really good days they can all be serious threats to the top placings in the Masters division.
Particular attention will be on Robbo, Ollie and One-Knot because they’re all holding a DNS and getting runs on the board in Gerroa for a 3rd event for their score cards could cause a big shift around in the overall results. So it’s still wide open as they say for the Masters!
In the Womens’ overall rankings we have Peruvian Bettina Gonzalez in first place ahead of New Caledonian Lilou Granier, local gal Cheryl Carter in 3rd and Saito in 4th. A remarkably international field for the Womens’ division! Results for these 4 have been limited to the Gerroa event only so far so a second set of points could change this around a lot. It’ll be hard to beat the in-form Peruvian Champion but with Lilou back in NC it’s going to be up to Cheryl and Saito to mount the challenge.
The final event will decide the champions so we’re hoping for more epic conditions from the mecca of NSW Wavesailing: Gerroa. And a big PARTY!!! See you all there!
Head Judge
