The Hobart crew of Michael Cooper, Matthew Johnston and David Chapman have became the first Australians to win a race at the SB20 World Championships on Italy’s Lake Garda, overnight lifting Export Roo from 12th to seventh place overall in the Gold Fleet.
They followed their opening race win with a sixth and a 15th place in the 50-boat Gold Fleet to be on 60 points after one discard, with five more races scheduled to be sailed.
Also in the top ten in Gold Fleet placings is Australian champion Glenn Bourke from Hamilton Island, helming Red, who overnight placed 5-21-7 to be on a net 62 points and in 10th place overall. Just five points separate the fifth and 10th placed boats in the Gold Fleet.
Victorian boat FIirtatious (Chris Dare) is 16th overall, overnight being placed 12-ufd-17, while Wysiwyg (Stephen Fries) has slipped to 34th with placings of 38-41-33 in the Gold Fleet.
The second Tasmanian boat, Mind Games, skippered by Phil Reid, is 41st overall in the Gold Fleet, overnight placing 27-34-39.
A change in conditions followed by a demanding afternoon of three rapid-fire races for day three has seen a shake-up on the leaderboard.
The 92-boat fleet competing awoke to a humid and windless Lake Garda this morning (July 8). Overnight storms delayed the formation of the – usually reliable – early afternoon breeze, and the race committee from the Circolo Vela Torbole flew the AP flag, with many in the fleet anticipating that racing would be cancelled for the day.
However, a later Ora breeze filled in mid-afternoon, and at 1500 hours the AP was lowered and the competitors in both Gold and Silver fleets were sent out to complete three rapid races in 16-24 knots. It was a tough day on the water for many, with the atypical Lake Garda conditions proving harder to read and strategise for, and some big gusts downwind also putting pressure on boat-handling skills.
Ukrainian Olympian Rodion Luka, initially one of the early favourites for the regatta, stormed from fifth overall to the top of the leader board by taking a sixth, second and first place overnight. Adding to the three race wins he carries from the qualifying series, Luka and his ‘Skyline’ team now lead on 33 points.
One point adrift, Roger Hudson’s ‘Race Ahead – Spirit of Cape Town’ team has yet to finish outside the top 10, and with a 10th, ninth and third place today are now second on 34 points.
In third lies the Russian ‘Melstrom Team’ of Alexey Murashkin, who had a mixed day with a second and a 14th place, and are now on 43 points overall. They are just one point ahead of early leaders, the FFV Youth team of ‘Give me 5’, who scored another race win before picking up an unwanted 27th, which cannot currently be discarded.
Peter Campbell
9 July 2015
Austrlian boat Wysywiyg racing overnight in the SB20 Gold Fleet on Lake Garda.
