International Canoe World Championship at San Francisco - Overall
by Karin Knowles 15 Sep 2014 08:38 BST
5-15 September 2014
On the morning of the last race of the 2014 International Canoe (IC) World championship, the championship was down to the wire with Mikey Radziejowski of Santa Cruz, CA (1, 1, [8], 2, 2, 2, 1, 2) leading reigning world champion Chris Maas of Anacortes, WA ([35/DNF], 2, 4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1) by only one point after eight races and one throw-out. With a second throw-out allowed after nine races, Sunday's ninth and final race could have shuffled the final standings. However, the race had to be abandoned before the start due to winds topping the International Canoe (IC) class' limit of 21 knots, securing the IC World Championship for Mikey Radziejowski.
Though only 22 years old, Radziejowski is not new to the sailing scene. He sailed his first IC Worlds in Australia at age 17, was member of the American Youth Sailing Force that raced on the AC45, is active in I-14 and Aussie 18 skiff sailing, and raced in the 2011 Transpac on Criminal Mischief, which came in second. "It's all still surreal for me, I can't believe I sailed well enough to win," said Radziejowski. Although he finished in second place, Chris Maas took pleasure in knowing that Radziejowski was sailing a Superstring Theory boat, a Maas' design. "It was possibly the most fun regatta I've ever sailed in," said Maas. "Not only were the conditions challenging, but the competition was close, my boat was fast, and the camaraderie was tremendous."
Third place goes to Alistair Warren of Saxmundham, Suffolk, Great Britain (42 points), Peter Ullman of Oldenburg, Germany came in fourth (46 points) and David Clark, from Warren, RI, USA finished in fifth place (47 points).
Complete results are posted on the regatta website at www.regattanetwork.com/event/8306#_newsroom+results.
The New York Challenge Cup will be held Monday, September 15. This cup, established in 1885, is the second oldest international sailing trophy in the world still being raced for after the America's Cup. Different in format from collegiate team racing, this challenge will be a competition between two teams of three International Canoes each, and the Cup will be awarded to the first team with a boat crossing the finish line first in two out of a possible three races. For more information, go to www.regattanetwork.com/event/8306#_home.
More photos can be found at ic-worlds.jimdo.com/fotos and www.rockskipper.com/Sailing-Galleries/2014-International-Canoe-Wrlds/Tuesday-September-9/44230442_JJxNrw#!i=3525770982&k=DL2wGr2.
British team performance By Steve Clarke
With the race series cut to 8, only one discard now applies which had quite an impact on the results below third as many required an addition discard to shed some points after retirements earlier in the series.
The end result is that Alistair Warren is top British sailor with a richly deserved 3rd place after consistent sailing not only at the championships but for the last few years. Phil Robin produced an excellent result coming in 7th, whilst Robin Wood with two retirements suffered from the loss of the last race with otherwise good results including a win in race 3, came in 9th. Mark Goodchild and Simon Allen in their Nethercotts were able to show a few of the new rules boats the way home by posting consistent results and staying mostly upright.
For the whole team, the regatta has been an invaluable lesson in higher wind strength sailing with a steep learning curve for many in the big waves. The experience gained will be invaluable in the further development of boats, rig and systems design to move the class forward and prepare for the next Worlds in 2017 which will be in either Sweden, Australia or the UK.