Nacra 17 Worlds: Billy Besson & Marie Riou Inaugural World Champs

Billy Besson is simply on Fire & playing in “the Zone”, I think Luna Rossa should call him to see what what happens. Two weeks ago Besson dominated the 180 F18 fleet at Grosseto Worlds with Jeremie Lagarrigue, two weeks later he did the same this time with Marie Riou on the new Olympic multihull Class. They had 4 bullets in 8 races after a low 21st in the first race.
The French crew showed speed and tactical wise, some races were won by hundreds meters, over a super competitive fleet and tricky conditions all week.

GBR Ben Saxton & Diana Hammond ended close in points and were the most consistent with all top 6 results. In third place SUI Matias Buhler & Nathalie Brugger but 20 points behind. Friday racing ended with ITA Bissaro-Sicouri in third place but a protest left them with a dsq on a port-starboard cross relegating the Italians to the 8th.
As no Medal race could be launched due to storms and posterior calm, Friday overall results were the final word and provided no chance or hope for other teams to search for podium.

Scoring changed again, now without a Carry Forward from qualys and no discard in the finals, I really don´t know what they are doing with the scoring system, the Medal race is a joke, as ISAF is making life easier for the leaders to maintain status quo and also you left too much sailors wondering and wanting a final chance to improve their overall.

Drama would be a leader scoring a 30 in the final race and losing the Gold, drama would be the uninvited guest scoring a bullet and reaching top 3. Needless to say a Medal race with 6 boats as they did a Kiel Week is hilarious, plus the foreseen possibility since day one to be able not to race the entire Qualy series and still get a medal chance as it happened at Hyeres.

But well, these are just details, although the truth is they don´t even know what to do, showed by the constant changes explained above.

Still much to come and learn for all the crews that participated, 65 boats was a good number for an initial Worlds. The media coverage was really good with constant updates and Live gps tracing, the only problem was poor wind conditions. Beyond the scoring system and as remarked in this great period with Multis back to Olympics, the Class, the boat and Mandatory Mixed crews are pure Success.

– Top Ten Gold Fleet Results below.
– Official website with more info, video and  Full Results Gold & Silver  Fleet www.nacra17class.com
– Images by Thom Touw & Laurens Morel , Full galleries at https://www.nacra17class.com/july-26/
– Selected Image Gallery at CSN FB.
– Tracking Replays here