BY HARRY FISHER

A TOTAL of 15 Australian boats are competing in this year’s monster SAP 505 World Championships fleet in Weymouth, which has been described as one of the most competitive ever seen.

Six out of the nine scheduled races have been sailed with Poms Batchelor and Pascoe sitting on top of the table seven points clear of second.
130 boats are racing in this year’s SAP 505 World Championship in Weymouth. Photo: Christophe Favreau

 

Meanwhile Western Australia’s Peter Nicholas, with English crew Rhos Hawes, are the first Australian boat in 10th with a number of other Australians close behind.
Former Australian Champions Kevin Cameron and Sam Heritage (Queensland) are in 37th overall, which goes to show the strength of the fleet.
“It’s a tough field, any of the top 15 could win a race and there is around 15 odd previous world champions in the field,” Heritage said.
Sam Heritage
“The breeze each day so far has been light with the last day a building frontal which has seen constant rain over the last 24 hours and 30 knots.
“Hopefully it settles tomorrow and we get two heats in in around 15 knots.”
Heritage said many of the top guys had mixed results early on in the regatta with some boats even failing to follow the course.
“(They) missed the bottom mark on the triangle and instead headed through the gate,” he said.
“The current dual world champion Mike Holt has struggled like many to get out the starting gate and battled his way from mid fleet to gain respectable results.”
With three races to go the regatta is still wide open and we wish our Aussie sailors the best of luck.