Matteo Iachino and Lena Erdil claim first blood to take early season leads

The 2016 Ulsan PWA World Cup proved to be a testing and tricky six days as light and gusty winds meant that only one elimination was able to be completed for both the men’s and women’s fleets. The sailors weren’t just battling against the gusty winds as seaweed also caused havoc for several sailors.

The final day provided plenty of drama, but with the wind continuing to be extremely inconsistent it was not possible to complete the men’s second semifinal while the same was also true in the women’s meaning that the results remained unchanged and thus Matteo Iachino and Lena Erdil walk away with an early season lead having claimed first blood in the first race of the year.

Women’s

Lena Erdil has been consistently challenging for the top places at each event over the last few years and the 27 year old deservedly clinched the event victory after claiming the only bullet of the week in the winners’ final — which proved to be one of the most exciting heats with the lead changing hands several times. Lena Erdil showed great pace and walks away with the early advantage in this year’s title race.

Sarah-Quita Offringa begins the year with a second place — which the Aruban gem was delighted with after making a slow start to the final. Sarah-Quita recovered fantastically — turning on the afterburners on the second reach to move from 6th up into 2nd before holding off Delphine Cousin nicely, but she couldn’t stop Lena Erdil. Offringa is attempting to win a hat-trick of world titles and she’ll be back even stronger when the women return to action in Alacati, Turkey.

Delphine Cousin will be disappointed that the first attempt to run the winner’s final was cancelled as the former 2-time world champion held a significant lead and looked set to claim victory. However, third place still represents a solid start to the season and she’ll be a major threat again next time out as the 24 year old looks to claim back her world crown.

Meanwhile, Cagla Kubat also made a solid start to the season as the Turk finished in 4th place ahead of Fujiko Onishi.

Men’s

Matteo Iachino picked up where he left off last season by claiming an emphatic victory in the winners’ final. The Italian changed sponsors over the close season and quickly showed that he has adapted perfectly to his new gear. Iachino led the title race for much of last season and looks set to be challenging for top honors again based on his first appearance of the season.

Cyril Moussilmani looks as though he’s ready to produce another title challenge in 2016 after a slightly disappointing showing last year — where he finished 8th. Cyril Moussilmani ended last year with a 3rd place finish in New Caledonia and has brought that form into the new year and should be challenging for the overall podium again this year.

Ross Williams starts the season with an excellent third place, but he is one of the sailors who was fortunate that the second semifinal could not be completed with the Brit taking a quarterfinal exit in race two, which would have seen the Brit drop down the rankings. However, Williams, again showed he’ll be challenging for top honors again over the course of the season. Pierre Mortefon, Malte Reuscher, Antoine Albeau and Steve Allen were also breathing a sigh of relief, like Williams, that the second race was completed as they all also took quarterfinal exits in the second race.

Julien Quentel made an excellent start to the season on his new equipment and the man from Saint Maarten was able to claim 5th place in the opening event of the season.

Meanwhile, the top ten is completed by Gonzalo Costa Hoevel and Pascal Toselli, who won the losers’ final to claim 9th place. Gonzalo Costa Hoevel was unfortunate in the winners’ final as Julien Quentel collided with the Argentinian at the first mark when holding third place. Elsewhere, Bruno Martini made a bright start to the season as he won both of his opening heats before finishing 14th overall. The 22 year old had also qualified for the winners’ final in Elimination 2 and looks an excellent prospect.

Amado Vrieswijk almost caused a huge upset in the opening race as he pushed Antoine Albeau all the way in the semifinal for the final qualifying place, unfortunately for the Bonairean a piece of seaweed cost him dearly as Albeau just held on, but after a superb second place finish in the opening freestyle event of the year the 20 year begins the slalom season with a 16th place, but that was very nearly a top 10 finish.

After a tricky opening to the season the men will return to action on the 7th of June as they head to Costa Brava, while the women will be back in action in August. Make sure you tune into PWA World Tour.com to stay up to date with all the latest news from Costa Brava between the 7th and 12th of June to see if Matteo Iachino and Cyril Moussilmani can hold onto their early season leads.

Day 6 - A dramatic final day but ultimately Iachino and Erdil clinch victory

On paper the final day of the Ulsan PWA World Cup would seem rather uneventful with the overall result of the event not changing — however that doesn’t tell the full story. The forecast always looked tricky for today and that’s exactly how it played out — resulting in just eight heats being completed over a period of 6 hours. The outcome of the men’s standings was just one heat away from changing quite significantly, but ultimately the wind refused to play ball despite numerous efforts to gain a result.

As a result several sailors were left with their hearts in their mouths as their result hung in the balance on the completion or non-completion of Heat 14. After being made to sweat it out for the entire afternoon the likes of Ross Williams — 3rd in Race 1 — Pierre Mortefon — 4th — and reigning world champion, Antoine Albeau — 7th were all able to breathe a sigh of relief, after quarterfinal exits, when the event was officially called off just before 5 PM.

In the women’s fleet Lena Erdil was also left breathing a sigh of relief after falling at the opening buoy in her semifinal, which would have almost definitely resulted in the 27 year old missing out on a place in the winners’ final, while potentially costing her the event victory.

Immediately after coming off the water we quickly caught up with both Matteo Iachino and Lena Erdil who claim the opening victories of the year to take an early season lead in the race for the 2016 world titles:

Lena Erdil reflects on a slice of luck and capturing the event victory: “I feel really lucky actually. It’s been a hard week with not much wind and a lot of tries at racing as well as battling it out with the seaweed. Today we were trying really hard again and I wouldn’t have qualified from my heat today if it wasn’t abandoned. I feel very happy and lucky.”

Matteo Iachino picked up immediately from where he left off last season and had this to say: “I feel really good and really happy. It was a hard day because we were on the water for about 3 hours waiting for good conditions, but the wind was so up and down and there was also a lot of seaweed in the water, which made it even more difficult to deal with the pressure. I managed to avoid going over early in the quarterfinals and then I was leading my semifinal before it was cancelled, but I’m super happy. It’s the best possible start to the year.”

That concludes the 2016 Ulsan PWA World Cup. The conditions have been extremely tricky over the last six days with it only being possible to complete one elimination in both the men’s and women’s fleets. We’ll be back again on the 7th of June when the Men’s Slalom fleet will be in action again as they head to Costa Brava, Spain, for the second stop of the PWA Slalom World Tour.

Day 5 - Attention turns to the final day after a lay day

As predicted the wind remained light on the penultimate day of the Ulsan PWA World Cup meaning no further racing took place. With the sailors on hold until 4 PM we caught up with a few of them to see what they made of yesterday’s racing in tricky conditions.

Lena Erdil, who won the opening race of the year: “Still reliving the excitement of yesterday’s final in my mind! What an epic race with the top 4 changing constantly! Light wind mixed with a seaweed obstacle course made this into one of the most exciting races I have ever sailed in I think! So happy to have been able to come out on top for this first final in 2016! Thanks to everyone cheering me on and sending me messages! Now fingers crossed for more, hopefully, better wind and more racing!”

Matteo Iachino, who claimed an emphatic victory in the opening men’s race: “I had an amazing start. When there was 3 seconds to go I closed my sail and just decided to go for it. The guys upwind from me were a little bit late and the guys at the boat were also hitting the start perfectly. I had a better line which allowed me to reach the first mark in the lead, which made life a lot easier. I’ve trained the whole winter, but you never know until you come to the first event exactly where you are — so it feels good to get the first bullet."

Reigning world champion, Antoine Albeau: “What a day yesterday. Light wind and the committee was pushing a lot. We tried to run the semifinal 5 times and I made 5 good starts. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to another good start in only final we did. Not bad at the end to finish 7th as it was easy to get bad luck in these tricky conditions. One more day to go.”

Reigning world champion, Sarah-Quita Offringa: “AWO! A second place finish in the first race got me smiling, since it's quite tough on the water! It was a proper fight where there were four of us that took over the lead for a little while until Lena sealed the deal. Exciting! I sailed 8.6m² and iSonic 114 Carbon. Looking forward to some more! Vamooosss!”

Delphine Cousin, who could almost taste victory yesterday, before the first attempt to run the final was cancelled: “Again light conditions yesterday, but we finished the first race! Little bit upset because I was leading the race, but it has been canceled because of "not enough wind ". For the second try, it was a very big fight with Lena Erdil at the first mark and at the third mark I got seaweed around my fin and so eventually I finished 3rd... Not so bad with those tricky conditions where anything can happen! Fingers crossed for action on the final day!”

Cagla Kubat: “Yesterday in Korea we continued to have quite difficult conditions which were again on the limit and with the challenge of avoiding the seaweed. Due to the limited winds we have been only able to finish one round here in four days. In yesterday’s hotly contested final, I finished fourth. The last days forecast looks quite difficult for wind, but we are continuing to pray for it and trying to stay relaxed and have fun.”

After a day on hold attention now turns towards tomorrow, which currently has forecasts predicting winds between 10 and 28 knots, which could provide a grand stand finale to the event. However, the only cause for concern is the amount of rain accompanying the wind, which could potentially make the wind extremely squally. The sailors will meet again tomorrow at 8:30 AM for the skippers’ meeting with a first possible start of 9 AM.

Day 4 - Matteo Iachino and Lena Erdil claim first bullets of the season

After slowly edging towards the conclusion of the opening race over the last two days a result was finally gained during the afternoon of day four. The conditions remained light once again — with winds of 7 to 14 knots — making starts and the opening reach critical in order to advance. A few slices of luck were also needed today with seaweed causing havoc on several occasions. However, come the end of day, Matteo Iachino and Lena Erdil stand at the top of the current event rankings after claiming victory in the opening races of the season.

Women’s Elimination 1 - Winners’ Final

The women’s winners’ final was completed at the second time of asking after the first effort had to be cancelled, with Delphine Cousin holding a significant lead, due to a lack of wind. Upon the restart, Mio Anayama made the best start of the fleet, but as they rounded the opening buoy it was Cagla Kubat who struck to the front after a great jibe with Delphine Cousin and Lena Erdil narrowly behind.

At this point, Sarah-Quita Offringa was towards the rear of the pack, but the reigning world champion turned on the afterburners on the second reach to move from 6th into 2nd place before taking an aggressive approach at the second jibe. This forced Kubat wide — allowing Erdil to seize the initiative and hit the front of the pack ahead of Delphine Cousin and Sarah-Quita Offringa, who wobbled away from her penultimate jibe — costing her valuable time.

Lena Erdil remained calm in the lead and after a tidy final jibe, the 27 year old was soon celebrating claiming the first bullet of the season. Meanwhile, Offringa managed to out maneuver Cousin as the reigning world champion and vice-world champion finished in second and third place respectively, while Cagla Kubat secured a clear fourth ahead of Fujiko Onishi.

Men’s Elimination One -Winners’ Final

Matteo Iachino immediately picked up where he left last year as the Italian flew down the opening reach to claim the lead ahead of Cyril Moussilmani, Ross Williams and Malte Reuscher. By the penultimate jibe Iachino had extended his lead and this proved to be unassailable advantage as he claimed the opening bullet to complete a fantastic day for Starboard and Point-7. Behind him, Moussilmani and Williams claimed second and third, while Pierre Mortefon was able to move up into fourth place with Reuscher slipping back to sixth due to seaweed getting wrapped around his fin. The final wasn’t without incident either as Julien Quentel — who finished 6th — collided with Gonzalo Costa Hoevel — who was in third place as he entered the jibe — to end the Argentinian’s hopes in the final.

Amado Vrieswijk almost caused a massive upset by nearly knocking out reigning world champion — Antoine Albeau — in the second semifinal as they battled it out for the final qualifying place. Vrieswijk produced a fantastic jibe to move right onto the tail of Albeau, only for a piece of seaweed to cost him a chance of qualifying for the final as AA advanced. The final didn’t go Albeau’s way on this occasion as a rare poor start cost him dearly and he eventually finished in seventh place.

Meanwhile, Cyril Moussilmani was lucky to escape with just a cut ear after being squeezed into a five man pileup before the start of the semifinal. Moussilmani, to his credit, was able to remain focused at the task at hand and claimed second place in Elimination 1.

In the losers’ final — Pascal Toselli — claimed a convincing victory to secure ninth place in the opening race ahead of Steve Allen and Taty Frans. The first five heats of the men’s second elimination were completed before conditions deteriorated and the racing was abandoned for the day.

The forecast looks extremely light for tomorrow with just 6-7 knots being predicted, but the forecast for the final day now shows 11-27 knots — accompanied by heavy rain. The sailors will meet again tomorrow at 9:30 AM for the skippers’ meeting with a first possible start of 10 AM.

Day 3 - Light and gusty winds make for a tricky afternoon of racing

The better forecast for today never quite materialized, which led to a rather frustrating afternoon of racing as light and gusty winds made for a stop-start affair. Over the course of 4 hours it was only possible to complete a further 6 heats in the men’s division, while the opening 2 heats in the women’s fleet were also completed before being the sailors were released for the day with conditions continuing to deteriorate.

Women’s Elimination 1

Mio Anayama made the best start to the opening women’s heat of the year and led as they rounded the first mark, however by the time the fleet approached the third mark it was Lena Erdil who had moved to the front of the pack and she went on to win the heat ahead of Cagla Kubat, Delphine Cousin, Anayama and Valerie Ghibaudo.

A result was finally gained for Heat 2, an hour and a half after the first attempt as the wind continually fluctuated between being suitable and unsuitable. Unfortunately, on what proved to be the penultimate start Marion Dusart was disqualified for a false start. Upon the restart reigning world champion — Sarah-Quita Offringa — safely booked her place in the first winner’s final of the year as the Aruban gem won the heat ahead of María Andrés, Fulya Ünlü — last year’s youth world champion — Esther de Geus and Fujiko Onishi.

Men’s Elimination One

Matteus Isaac made a winning start in the first heat of the day as he secured a place in the quarterfinals alongside Amado Vrieswijk, Tristan Algret and Vincent Langer, who fought back to knock out Finian Maynard.

Both Ben van der Steen and Laurence Carey were disqualified from Heat 9 for premature starts, which left 6 sailors battling for the top 4 qualifying positions. Ultimately, Gonzalo Costa Hoevel, Bruno Martini, Matteo Iachino and Pascal Toselli advanced.

Julien Quentel made a winning start to life on his new equipment in Heat 10 as he fended of competition from Pierre Mortefon. Meanwhile, Antoine Questel overtook teammate Taty Frans as they completed the heat in third and fourth place respectively.

In the last quarterfinal — Heat 12 — Marco Lang was extremely unlucky as the Austrian caught a plastic bag around his fin just before to the start to ruin any chance of him qualifying for the next round. Cyril Moussilmani won the heat ahead of Amado Vrieswijk — who advanced through his third consecutive heat — Steve Allen and reigning world champion — Antoine Albeau.

Many of the sailors who competed in Heat 13 were not overly happy with the conditions in which they raced, but the result stood despite a protest. Matteo Iachino showed he has had no problem adjusting to his new equipment — Starboard and Point-7 — as the Italian booked his place in the winners’ final alongside Julien Quentel, Gonzalo Costa Hoevel and Pierre Mortefon.

The second semi-final was started, but had to be cancelled with the wind being deemed too light. With the conditions failing to improve the sailors were released at 6:30 PM.

The forecast looks similar for tomorrow and the sailors will meet at 8:30 AM again for the skippers’ meeting — with the action commencing from 9 AM (GMT+9) if conditions allow. Make sure you tune into PWA World Tour.com to follow all of the action live.

Day 2 - The wind arrives late to bring Jinha Beach to life

The best opportunity for wind on the second day in South Korea always looked liked being in the late afternoon or evening and that’s exactly how it played out. After a still and extremely hazy start to proceedings the fog eventually cleared and the wind slowly increased, however, it wasn’t until just before 6:30pm that the first heat was completed, in 8-14 knots, as the temperature plummeted during the evening to aid the cause — allowing the opening 7 heats of the men’s first elimination for be completed before fading light brought an end to play.

Men's Elimination One

Heat 1 was completed at the second time of asking and just as in the first attempt it was Bruno Martini who held the lead from the word go. The Italian showed terrific straight line speed to qualify in style for the next round ahead of Daisuke Ikoma, Laurence Carey and Ramon Pastor — who won the battle for the final qualifying place.

In Heat 2 Japan’s Norio Asano led from start to finish as he qualified ahead of Michal Aftowicz, Jan Kosmina and Andrea Ferin — who produced an excellent jibe at the penultimate mark to overtake Janis Preiss.

Nicolas Warembourg looked in impressive form in Heat 3 as the Frenchman secured a clinical victory by showing blistering speed and tidy jibes to finish well ahead of Fred Morin, Tomonori Anami and local boy Hyung-Kwon Kim.

Vincent Langer also led from start to finish in the last heat of the opening round, while Amado Vrieswijk produced a superb first jibe to move into second place ahead of Akihiko Yamada and Shinya Kunieda, who completed the top 4.

Bruno Martini continued his winning ways in Heat 5 with another accomplished display to see off the challenge of Laurence Carey, Kurosh Kiani and Andrea Rosati who also qualify for round 3. The Italian changed sponsors over the winter and appears to have made a seamless transition onto his new gear.

Reaching the first mark in the top four proved critical in the light winds and Andrea Cucchi made a bright start as he too led from start to finish as he pressed home the advantage of clean wind. Taty Frans and Maciek Rutkowski made no mistakes to ensure their place in the next round — qualifying in second and third place respectively — while Benjamin Augé capitalized on Andrea Ferin’s mistake at the last to clinch the final qualifying place in round 3.

Heat 7 proved to be the final heat of the day and it was Jordy Vonk, who came out on top as the Dutchman also led from start to finish to advance. Meanwhile, Nicolas Warembourg, Arnon Dagan and Josh Angulo completed the top 4.

With the light rapidly fading day two was called to an end and the sailors will meet again tomorrow morning at 8:30 AM for the skippers’ meeting — with the action commencing from 9 AM if conditions allow. The forecast looks better for tomorrow, compared to today, so with a bit of luck there will be a full schedule of racing on the agenda. Make sure you tune into PWA World Tour.com to follow all of the action live.

Day 1 - Sailors rigged and ready for racing after a quiet opening day

The opening day of the Ulsan PWA World Cup proved to be a quiet affair with the wind remaining extremely light over the duration of the day. The sailors registered for the upcoming six days of competition between 10 AM - 12 PM, before making any final adjustments to their equipment to ensure they are 100% ready for when the racing kicks off.

Earlier in the day we caught up with Jordy Vonk, who changed sponsors during the close season:

PWA: You changed sponsors over the winter to Fanatic and North Sails — how are you getting on with your new gear and what have you been up to during the close season?JV: “I’m very, very happy. This year I’m on Fanatic, North and Ion. Over the winter I went over to Tenerife for 3 months where several of my other teammates passed by; Pierre Mortefon, Marco Lang, Laurence Carey, Vincent Langer and a lot of the other sailors who compete on the tour were also there, which was great as it gave me all the information I needed about my new gear and gave me the opportunity to tune everything up. Over the 3 months I was able to test everything on the race course, which was the perfect preparation for the year.”

PWA: How are you feeling ahead of the racing here?JV: “I feel good. I feel comfortable on all my gear from small to large. I’ve already been able to use everything a lot, so it’s about time to turn the training into action.”

PWA: Thanks, Jordy, and good luck with the racing this week.

The forecast looks slightly better for tomorrow — although the wind is predicted to be from the northeast rather than the prevailing southwest — so the normal thermal effect will not come into play. The best opportunity looks set be in the late afternoon with 11-16 knots being predicted. As a result the skippers’ meeting will be held at 9:30 AM with a first possible start of 10 AM. Make sure you stay tuned on our website — here you’ll be able follow the action as it happens via the PWA live stream.

- Text and Pictures are courtesy of John Carter / PWA World Tour -