After winning all their previous races the Great Britain ‘Spitfires’ crashed out in their semi-final at the SSL Gold Cup.
Semi-Finals Day was where the last eight nations in the competition became the final four. There was no room for error, with a single race for each fleet to determine the finalists.
In the Fleet 1 start The four nations lined up perfectly on starboard in the 12 knots breeze in a battle of boatspeed, with the British ‘Spitfires’ squeezed between the ‘Dutch Lions’ and Italy’s ‘Gladiators’, while the ‘Brazilian Storm’ were slightly separated to the left.
It was nearly six minutes before we saw the first tack, with Brazilians crossing over first, having to duck the Italian and and British, while the Dutch followed suit and also tacked away.
The Italian and British teams delayed until they were near the port layline.
The Dutch rounded ahead of Italy, followed by Brazil and Ian Williams British team.
Downwind the powerful yachts were surfing the waves, testing the trimmers and grinders to the limit.
In the increased swell each manoeuvre was proving costly, and the Italians took the lead from the Dutch at the windward mark.
The ‘Spitfires’ had 19 seconds to make up on the final downwind leg.
Italy surfed across the finish line and into the final with the Dutch just behind them. The British were third and the Dutch fourth.
In the other semi-final, The Spanish ‘La Armada’ team recovered from a poor start to lead and eventually win with Hungary holding off New Zealand to seal the second qualifying spot.
Wild celebrations erupted on board both yachts, especially the Hungarian ‘Shamans’ who have been in the competition since the 1/16 Finals.
It’s now down to the last four teams in the Grand Final – Italy’s ‘Gladiators’, The Netherlands’ ‘Dutch Lions’, Hungary’s ‘Shamans’ and Spain’s ‘La Armada’ – to face each other on the water for one final race Sunday, and be crowned the World Champion of Sailing Nations!
Ian Williams, Captain of Great Britain was philosophical in defeat:
“After the Dutch tacked off I felt that we hit a bad set of waves and we really struggled to recover after that. You only need to lose that one or two lengths, and from then you’re on the back foot, there aren’t many passing lanes out there.”
“I’m really proud of the guys, we kept fighting, we managed to get past the Brazilians, but obviously the lead two just got that little jump, and it was very hard to then come back into it. That’s how it goes in knockout sailing.”
