Nicolai Sehested today cast aside any idea that Taylor Canfield and US One were the event favourites, ruthlessly dispatching the American team 3-1 in their Quarter Final match at the World Match Racing Tour Fremantle.
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The young Dane is showing no fear of any opponent, and nor should he, the way he is tearing around the track in the M32 multihull this week. To look at his crewâs devil-may-care attitude to throwing the boat around, you would never know the Viking raider was racing this challenging boat for the first time this week, with a team that have never sailed together before. Canfield on the other hand has been racing the M32 for more than a year but couldnât match Sehested off the high-speed reaching starts, nor could the 2013 World Champion catch the great Dane around the race course.
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âYou make some small mistakes and you pay big for them,â shrugged an unusually downbeat Canfield at the evening press conference. âOnce they were ahead they were uncatchable. We made a couple of mistakes in the pre-start, down to bad communication on my part, and we couldnât catch up after that.â
Sehested looks fast and loose downwind, ready to let the M32 rip at all times, even when the Fremantle Doctor – the strong local afternoon breeze – is pumping hard. He didnât deny it. âI donât think we hold back, we keep pushing, itâs the only way to learn how to sail these boats,â he said. âIâm just trying to keep up with the crew, I donât want to be the one that lets them down by holding back.â
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The simplest Quarter Final victory went to Great Britain’s Ian Williams who despatched Swedenâs Mattias Rahm 3-0 in a superior performance by the GAC Pindar crew. As the reigning and six-time World Champion, Williams was the undoubted master of the slow keelboats, but heâs proving to be a fast learner in the multihulls. âThe fleet is improving so fast that if weâre only as good as today, we probably wonât be good enough tomorrow,â said Williams, who faces Sehested in the Semi-Finals. âNicolai is very dangerous, his team beat us in Poland last year. Weâll take on board the lessons from today and see what we can do.â The historical statistics are etched in Sehestedâs memory too. He hasnât lost to Williams in the past 12 months, even if those matches were in keelboats, nothing like the M32.
Two young Australians, Matt Jerwood and Murray Jones, put up a good fight against some older, more experienced multihull racers. Local Perth sailor Jerwood took two matches off Olympic silver medallist Hans WallĂŠn before the Swede hit his stride to go through to the Semi-Finals. The ever upbeat Jerwood would love to come back for more. âItâs been great to have the event here in Fremantle. Thereâs so much sailing history here with Australia II in the museum, it was the first place that saw a foiling Moth sailing, people here really embrace sailing. Iâve never had so many people come up to shake my hand, to congratulate us. Canât wait to do some more M32 stuff this year.â
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Jones gave Yann Guichard a few scares, especially when the Frenchman made an unforced error during one pre-start. âWe were going really fast downwind, and I tried to gybe on the foil. We capsized, but no damage, everyone was OK on board. Five minutes later weâre back upright and ready again. Iâve never seen this before on this size of boat. Normally you break something when you capsize, but not today.â Although Jones won that race by default, Guichard quickly reverted to business as usual. Even though he has next to no experience in the M32, his deep background in racing all kinds of multihulls – from Olympic Tornados to the giant 40m, round-the-world Spindrift 2 – equips Guichard with a natural feel for what makes the M32 tick. Even against the wily WallĂŠn, heâll be fast and dangerous.
So tomorrow itâs Williams v Sehested, and WallĂŠn v Guichard. With the pre-event favourite out of the running, Canfield was asked who heâd back for the overall win, for the US$33,000 prize money tomorrow afternoon. âSehested. He was fast against us today, and I think heâll do it again tomorrow.â Will Canfieldâs confidence be a curse on the Dane? Or is Canfield right to foresee the young Viking doing another smash-and-grab assault on his more experienced competitors on the final day, the climax of the World Match Racing Tour Fremantle?
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Results after Day 5
Through to the Semi Finals:
Ian Williams (GBR) v Nicolai Sehested (DEN)
Hans WallĂŠn (SWE) v Yann Guichard (FRA)
Results in Quarter Finals:
Nicolai Sehested (DEN) beat Taylor Canfield (ISV) 3-1
Yann Guichard (FRA) beat Murray Jones (AUS) 2-1
Hans WallĂŠn (SWE) beat Matt Jerwood (AUS) 2.5-1.5
Ian Williams (GBR) beat Mattias Rahm (SWE) 3-0
