Dutch sailors Crowned - World Champions 2024!

49erFX Odile and Annette regain world title after stunning performance on high seas

Many CONGRATULATIONS to our sponsored sailors of the 49erFX Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz who have taken back their World Champion title today (Sunday 10th March) in the ‘World’ sailing series in Lanzarote, Spain.

After a fierce battle which could have gone either way right up until the 16th and final heat of the competition the Dutch Sailors have won back their NED ‘1’ sail number from the Swedish team Bobeck and Netzler.

Last year the Swedish team (who are also ‘training partners’ with the Dutch team) took the title away from our Dutch sailors – and on Dutch territorial water! – so winning it back again today must feel all the sweeter!

This win also makes Annette Duetz the most successful sailor of the 49erFX of all time – with four World titles to her credit.

It was Day 4 of the six-day competition which changed everything for friends-and-rivals Sweden and Nederlands. The world’s number one and number two 49erFX teams had locked horns for three days leaving the Swedish team with a two point lead -but day 4 overturned that score leaving the Swedes in second place, trailing the Dutch by sixteen points.

2024 Lanzarote 49er and FX Worlds
© Sailing Energy / Lanzarote Sailing Center
09 March, 2024

You might hope that kind of lead would put the Dutch on much firmer ground (to use exactly the wrong metaphor) but listen to what happened in one single heat and you’ll see how easily those points can be lost:

The last race on Day 4 featured gusts and inexplicable lulls – so that decisions which looked great just a few seconds earlier seemed like madness moments later when a hole in the wind frequently left one single boat bobbing around in the doldrums whilst the rest of the fleet sailed past a few yards away. I don’t know what it was like on board NED2 placing all their chips in this decision …or that one – but it was a hand-wringing experience for viewers at home to watch our sailors parked up on the motorway.

During the 30 minute ordeal NED2 tried every place on the scorecard between 1st and 15th …eventually settling for 5th over the line. That’s how unpredictable the Lanzarote breeze was even for the most experienced sailors in the world.

On DAY 5 the Swedish boat was uncatchable – absolutely flying to the finish line in the first and second races of the day. They seemed to have a higher gear in the box as they skimmed over the waves providing at least an extra knot of speed which no other competitor could find.

Their technique could not be faulted, particularly on the more dangerous downwind legs: Travelling faster than the waves, every few seconds the boat falls over the crest it has overtaken and plunges into the trough below. The bow, pointing down, is in danger of submerging which might trip the boat – like locking the front wheel on a motorbike – causing a ‘pitch pole’ …or somersault. To avoid that danger the kite (the most powerful sail in the downwind set-up) has to be de-powered by slacking the control line.

These windy conditions favoured Bobeck and Neztler (who are tall) – and their sailing technique allowed them to put a stunning 300m between them and second-placed Germany …and a whopping 500m lead over the Dutch, in 5th. The swedes easily won that race. Odile and Annette ultimately finished in 3rd.

2024 Lanzarote 49er and FX Worlds
© Sailing Energy / Lanzarote Sailing Center
09 March, 2024

In the second race of the day Sweden clinched another 1st with the Dutch boat in second place – but it was in the final race of the day which provided the best dramatic action between these top two World Champion contenders:

With the Dutch boat enjoying a complete change of the day’s fortune – well out in the lead – the Swedes were trying to make-good a bad start and had done well to climb into second place – 200 metres behind the Dutch whom they were chasing hard. Perhaps too hard.

Flying over the water on trapezes with only their toes touching the boat the Swedes were slamming over the waves with the wind coming from the starboard quarter (behind, right) when suddenly they hit a wave which threw them up into the air from where they crashed down onto the next rising wave which swamped them, wiping Netzler clean overboard.

Bobeck clung on to the rigging and the boat continued to sail for almost 200 metres before capsizing. A drone, happening to be flying along behind them at exactly the right moment captured breathtaking footage of the event!:

There was no recovering from that disaster and the day ended with the Dutch team in first place 25 points ahead of the Swedes, and the Italian boat’s Germani and Bertuzzi in third.

On the last day of racing a bad start saw the Dutch boat way down in the teens of the fleet most of the time, finishing in 17th with the Swedish team crossing in 3rd – keeping their hopes of retaining their World Champion title alive and setting us all up for a nail-biting finish right up to the very last ‘medal’ race of the event.

Our sailors needed to finish in the top eight – so their tactic was to produce a professional risk-free performance. Clinching a two place lead over the Swedish boat right from the start they dominated – copying the Swedish moves throughout race, caging them, and tactically spoiling all of the Swede’s new initiatives. There’s more to world class sailing than brilliant boat handling!

Many many congratulations to our sponsored sailors – we’re proud of you, and admire your passion to be the world’s number one!

Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz as a team are driven – and love what they do!