Miracles were in short supply for Olympic sailors Rob Dickson and Seán Waddilove on day three of the 49er World Championships in Sardinia on Thursday as the Dublin crew missed qualification for Gold fleet by a wide margin.
After nine races, the pair mustered two top 10 places on the last day of qualifying but another 22nd place proved weighty and even the single digit scores weren’t enough.
Had they managed to average eight or nine points per race over the past three days then they would certainly have qualified and might also have been within reach of the podium on Sunday.
But the 49er class is back to full strength following a fallow year, since the Paris 2024 Olympics, that Dickson and Waddilove had sought to capitalise upon with intensive training.
RM Block
That their performance improved was in little doubt this week, especially their starting technique, which was noteworthy. Where they went wrong will be the subject of much analysis with Irish Sailing’s coaching and support staff, as well as external experts, in the weeks ahead.
The pair consistently acknowledged over the three days that while boat speed was not an issue along with their strong starts, spotting fickle wind changes on the course affecting their strategy was a prime issue.
Although they have an opportunity to iron out these issues in the coming six races for the Silver fleet, that will be of little consolation for a crew that entered this World Championships with clear expectations of at least a top five result.
The coming two days will also be bittersweet as up and coming skiff sailors Ben O’Shaughnessy and Ethan Spain will also be competing against them having previously been ahead in the hunt for Gold fleet.
While the Cork/Dublin pairing were unable to repeat their 1-2-12 results on Wednesday for the final day of qualification, that set of results at their first World Championships will be a lifelong highlight in this most unforgiving class.
