It was a day of two halves here at the VRsport.tv International 14 World Championship 2016 in Carnac.
Despite the glassy water this morning, the competitors were down at Carnac Yacht Club bright and early to rig their boats and dry out their kites, turning the boat park into a sea of colour and activity. Outside the harbour walls however, the wind was yet to be roused, and so a series of indefinite postponements went up.
Now was the time to take the opportunity to scale the boat park for the newest developments, and to compare rig set-ups and for some of the younger members of the International 14 family, park up the pram and take a nap under the shade of the sails. During the hustle and bustle of the postponement, the wind began to fill in, and the fleet were able to launch into a fairly steady 5 knots of breeze.
Sea of red as the skiffs head downwind on day 2
The first start in light winds saw the fleet pushing the line, demanding a general recall, at which point the race officer swiftly exchanged his Blue Peter for a ‘U’ flag. However, even the wrath of the ‘U’ flag, combined with substantial port-end bias, couldn’t keep the fleet behind the line, and so the second start also ended in a general recall. By this point the wind wasn’t playing ball, and had dropped off, becoming patchy and shifty, and so the AP made a swift return.
After an hour of playing cat and mouse with the wind, the breeze filled in from the left, and the race committee were able to set up a course in a promising 12 knots of breeze. The start was conducted under a black flag, and finally the fleet were off. The first windward mark rounding saw Pascoe and Truswell leading, followed by a swarm of Aussie boats including Krstic and Lanati, Devine and Furlong, and Blasse and Gilligan, who had everything to prove following yesterday’s unfortunate breakage.
The wind still had a couple of tricks up its sleeve though, and the fleet were subject to a significant right hand shift at the start of the second beat. This allowed for some re-shuffle at the front of the fleet, of which Gilbert and McGrane and Jones and Fitzgerald took full advantage, using the opportunity to propel themselves further up the fleet and into the top five. Jones recounted how “there was a huge right hand shift… which you had to be the right side of” but the duo also made reference to the importance of boat handling around the course due to the fact that “the course was set up for 7 knots”.
Even when the boats shot through the finish line, after three intense laps around the relatively short course, there was still no sense of peace, as the crews raced in to shore to find out whether they had been black flagged. Although the majority of the fleet were safe, several boats including Borkenstein and Dietrich, and Alexander and Wildson felt the full power of the BFD, and will now be looking forward to the discard kicking in.
Fleet powering downwind in the light conditions
As day two drew to a close, Alistair Cattanch eloquently summed up the day in stating that although they had to “wait around a wee bit”, that ultimately they were rewarded with “great racing conditions”.
The Aussies are hanging tough, with some mixed results today, Dave Alexanders BFD hurt and sent them back into the mixer, Roger Blasse & Andrew Gilligan recovered from a collapsed mast base yesterday to post a 7th and will be hoping we can get enough racing in to enforce the drop. Brad Devine & Ian “Footy” Furlong stayed consistent while all was imploding around them to post a 5th and hold 4th overall. While Krstic & Lanati from Melbourne fought hard for a 2nd place to bring them right into contention.
Stay tuned and hopefully we can get some more wind on the race track over the next few days.
Top 10 after 2 races
1 GBR 1553 Trusswell/Pascoe
2 GBR 1541 Gilbert/Mcgrane
3 GBR 1519 Massey/Hillary
4 AUS 661 Devine/Furlong
5 GBR 1530 Jones/Fitzgerald
6 AUS 656 Krstic/Lanati
7 GBR 1557 Nurton/Ash
8 GBR 1559 Partington/Partington
9 GER 78 Voss/Ehrig
10 AUS 666 Hayter/Neighbour
Other Australians
11th AUS 663 Irwin/Perry
13th AUS 659 Sloss/Elliot
23rd AUS 650 Edmunds/Layfield
31st AUS 626 Mahar/Mahar
32nd AUS 638 Strong/Vaughan
35th AUS 628 Strong/Cameron
37th AUS 674 Vickery/Vickery
41st Aus 657 Blasse/Gilligan
42nd AUS 675 Patterson/McGeoch
44th AUS Alexander/Wilsdon
47th AUS 669 Vickery/Vickery
51st AUS 631 Vance/Von Felton
65th AUS 667 Tomamichel/Wangel
Overall Results
