29er World Championships at Lake Ontario, Canada - Day 2
by Jerelyn Biehl 30 Jul 2014 09:11 BST
26 July - 2 August 2014
French lead the way
The second day of the 29er World Championships began with unsteady winds from the North in the early morning. As sailors launched and arrived at the course there was only a short postponement to allow Kingston's famous thermal to kick in. By early afternoon the South West breeze had begun filling in with 12-16 knots of steady breeze.
On Course 1, Yellow fleet began the first racing trying to win the pin favoured end of the line. All boat were clear of the line and qualifying race 4 had begun! NZL 2269 won the race with HKG 2244 and AUS 4 close behind. Qualifying race 6 ended with GBR 2045 Gillies Munro and Daniel Harris squeezing past CAN 2004 Ryan Wood and Andrew Wood. The wind increased for qualifying race 7. NZL 2269 was the first to the windward mark and continued to distance themselves from the fleet. Micah Wilkinson and Jack Rogers of NZL 2269 were able to create a huge lead from the rest of yellow fleet, rounding the last mark almost a minute before another boat. A very tight final race for the top two boats in yellow fleet. ARG 1884 rounded the first and second marks in 1st with NZL 2269 right behind. ARG 1884 was just shy of first, with NZL 2269 finishing in the top spot for the final race of the day.
On course 2, Qualifying race 5 for blue fleet was led by FRA 2176, FRA 13 and USA 2251. FRA 2176 Gwendal Nael and Pierre Tytgat held their lead and finished first. After a slight course re-adjustment, the blue fleet got their 6th qualifying race off with only 1 boat OCS. The top three finishers for blue fleet race 6 were: 1st FRA 13, 2nd FRA 2176 and 3rd NED 2227. Race 7 begun with GER 2260 in first with ESP 16 in second. ESP 16 was able to pass GER2260 between the 1st and 2nd mark rounding. ESP 16, Tania Bonila and Marc Chapon continued on to win race 7. The final race of the day for blue fleet began with a general recall. The sailors were all clear on the second start, GER 2180 was in the lead at the first mark rounding with GER 2260 close behind. GER 2260 passed GER 2180 to finish 1st in race 8.
The day comes to a close with FRA 13 Brice Yrieix and Loic Ficher-Guillou in 1st overall. 29er North American Champions Kurt Hansen and Harry Morton Sailing AUS 4 are in 2nd and Micah Wilkinson and Jack Rogers sailing NZL 2269 are in 3rd.
Two more races are scheduled to finish the qualification series with the finals to start July 31 and the prizegiving on August 2.
Results can be found at http://www.29erworlds.org/index.php/results/
For more information, go to www.29erworlds.org