November 19, 2023
3 minutes reading time
Sailing has its own World Cup, finally! Like football in 1930 and rugby in 1987, the SSL Gold Cup is designed to crown the best sailing nation of all! The World Top 56 countries, selected on their SSL Nation ranking, will battle their way through to raise the coveted and only Sailing World Cup trophy. The SSL Gold Cup has started on May 19th 2022 with the Qualifying Series in Grandson, Lake Neuchatel (Switzerland). All teams ranked from the Top 25 to 56 in the January 2022 SSL Nations ranking met in 8 groups of 4 teams each. There was 5 rounds of the Qualifying Series running from May 19th to July 17th. After 3 to 4 days of racing, only the top two teams of each group will go through to the Final Series that will take place in Canary Islands from November 10th to December 3rd, 2023, to defend their national colors.
Star Sailors League: Saving the best for last in the Gran Canaria SSL Gold Cup 1/16 Finals
What a scintillating Sunday we had lined up to conclude the SSL Gold Cup 1/16 Finals. With double points on offer everything was to play for, and Fleet 1 was set to be a thriller with three teams tied on points. Alas, the wind, or more specifically the lack of it, meant we had to wait, with hunger building, before the first course was served.
Fleet 2 – Race 4
A clean start for the fleet with Hungary managing to get their nose ahead of their competitors. Tahiti chose to tack away early, favouring the right hand side of the course, which proved to be a rare bad move, leaving them in an unfamiliar position at the back of the fleet.
The Hungarian ‘Shamans’ took full advantage of their excellent start, controlling the fleet behind them with well placed covering tacks to round the windward mark a healthy 27 seconds ahead of the Bermudan ‘Privateers’, the Finnish ‘Northern Magic’ 13 behind them and the Tahitian ‘Black Pearls’ a further 15 seconds adrift.
At this point ‘The Black Pearls’ will have been cheering ‘The Shamans’ on, buoyed by their huge lead, as if they won it would ensure both teams progress to the 1/8 Finals thanks to their superior points tally going into the golden double points race. ‘The Privateers’ and ‘Northern Magic’ needed a win, with Tahiti remaining last, to qualify themselves.
‘The Shamans’ weren’t about to oblige either Finland or Bermuda’s wishes, sailing a perfect race to win ahead of ‘Northern Magic’, with ‘The Black Pearls’ finding more breeze offshore on the final downwind leg, to overtake ‘The Privateers’.
Joy for Hungary and Tahiti, sorrow for Finland and Bermuda.
Fleet 3 – Race 4
A slow approach to the line for the fleet with all lined up early, but Antigua & Barbuda’s ‘Rum Runners’ were squeezed out at the committee boat end, starting late.
The drama started at the top end of the course, with ‘The Rum Runners’ coming in from the left to lead at the windward mark by 70 metres with the chasing bunch of Croatia, Portugal and South Africa tightly packed behind.
Antigua & Barbuda lost some speed on their hoist after rounding Mark 1, compressing the fleet even more. At the leeward gate Antigua & Barbuda led from Croatia, which would mean them going through to the 1/8 Finals with South Africa trailing at the back of the fleet.
Team Portugal temporarily failed to live up to their ‘Navigators’ moniker, banking hard left while the rest of the fleet took a more conservative upwind leg playing the shifts, ending up trailing the fleet at the windward mark by a massive distance.
Everything looked set for Croatia and Antigua & Barbuda to qualify, but the final metres of the downwind leg saw everything change. Portugal grabbed back their ‘Navigators’ moniker with both hands, finding breeze on the left and going from last to first in moments, while on the right South Africa overtook Croatia. In a shock twist on the finish line it was Portugal and South Africa through to the 1/8 Finals.
Time Out for Fleets 4 and 1
With that drama, the 1/16 Finals were complete, as no races can be started after 16:00 hrs. This means the results for Fleets 4 and 1 were finalised after three races.
From Fleet 4 the Lithuanian ‘Ambers’ and Slovenian ‘KRPANI1860’ teams qualified, well ahead of new arrivals Canada and Japan on points.
Meanwhile in Fleet 1, it was heartbreak for the Estonian ‘Icebreakers’, who despite sharing the top spot with Chile and Malaysia, lost out due to their lack of wins this round. The Chilean ‘Finis Terrae Sailors’, after scraping through the 1/32 Finals as Lucky Loser, will be going ahead to the 1/8 Finals alongside the Malaysian ‘Monsoon’.
Follow the action LIVE each day with all the latest SSL Gold Cup news from on and off the water:
- Instagram @SSLGoldCup
- Facebook @SSLGoldCup
- Youtube @StarSailors
- Website www.starsailors.com and ssl-goldcup.com
#GranCanariaSSLGoldCup
Text and images courtesy of Star Sailors League. To find out more and to read the full release, please visit starsailors.com.