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After crossing the start line in 20th position, Cailen Rochford was never going to place at the O’pen Bic World Championships, until he made a dramatic decision.
The 13-year-old Wentworth College student competed in the U17 category at Arenys De Mar in Barcelona last month.
After qualifying for gold fleet he was set to sail 12 races, but due to extremely light winds competed in just two.
He came fifth place in the first race, leaving him a slim chance at finishing on the podium with one race remaining.
“I had a shocker of a start in the second race, crossing the start line in 20th position, meaning all the others boats in front were giving me wind shadow,” Cailen says.
Things got worse as he rounded the bottom marker in 21st position before he saw a chance to make a break.
“Everyone was travelling on the right side of the course, but I stood up in my boat to take a good look at the water and noticed a real good patch of wind on the left side.
“In the past I had been reluctant to follow my gut feeling, but my coach Russell Coutts encouraged me to do that so I took a chance and went left.”
This worked out to be a stroke of genius as he was one of just two to do so and made up a lot of ground on the other boats.
“In light winds, big decisions make big gains and that worked in my favour.”
Cailen finished up in first place, a massive 15 metres ahead of second placed racer, Hibiscus Coast resident Mattias Coutts.
“I almost couldn’t believe that I had won the race and got third overall,” Cailen says. “I was absolutely stoked that New Zealand sailors got all three podium places.”
Had Rochford finished second in that race, his overall placing would have dropped to sixth.
He puts his success down to that decision-making and great coaching from Russell.
“One of the challenges we had to deal with was the heatwave in Spain at the time, so Russell would get us to stay in the hotel until racing commenced, whereas other competitors were getting baked in the sun.”
Cailen also trained alongside Mattias for a week prior to the racing, where he adapted to sailing in light conditions.
That was Cailen’s last race in the O’pen Bic class as he has now transitioned to sailing with Mattias in a 29er, training at Manly Sailing Club.
“The dream would be to sail a 49er at the Olympic Games for New Zealand and I’m also interested in sailing Wasps, a foiling boat.”
He would like to thank everyone who supported his fundraising campaign to get to the championships, with over $6000 raised.
