Zhik 29er World Championships at Pwllheli Sailing Club - Day 4
by Jerelyn Biehl & Tim Bilbrough 13 Aug 2015 09:10 BST
8-14 August 2015
After being skunked for no wind on Tuesday, 29er sailors did not want to wait ashore. But being patient helped as the wind filled and all fleets were racing by 4pm in 10 knots of breeze.
In the gold fleet, which has the top 50 from qualifications, Canadian brothers Ryan and Andrew Wood led right out of the box and never looked back. Unfortunately they received an OCS in race 2. The winner of race 2 was Max Brill & Andrew Person (USA0 with brothers Tomas & Mads Mathiesen (NOR) taking the last race, which finished around 7:30pm.
Overall leaders after 3 races are Kyle O'Connell/Tom Siganto (AUS), Gwendal Nael/Pierre Tydgat (FRA) and Christopher Williford/Wade Waddell (USA).
Over on course B, host to the Silver & Bronze fleets, Matt Venables/John Mather (GBR) lead the Silver fleet with the Bronze fleet leaders Tania Bonilla/Nuria Miro (ESP).
The wind slowly increased today from 10 to12 knots as the evening approached with signals of the oncoming front which is predicted to bring 18-20 knots and rain tomorrow could be seen in the higher cloud layers.
The top female team has already been decided with Mimi El-Kazindar and Emma Loveridge (GBR) as the only female team to make the Gold fleet. Top youth team currently is John Cooley/Simon Hoffman (AUS) who stand fifth overall.
Racing continues on Thursday, August 13 with the final day and prizegiving on August 14.
www.29erworlds.org
Team GBR at the Worlds
The day started with the wind coming from every direction possible, at 0 knots.
Waiting for the breeze it took until 3pm for the fleet to be released. But with the wind steadily building to 8-11 knots it was all go. The breeze started at 310 and swung through the day to 360.
GBR 11 Mimi El-Khazinder & Emma Loveridge move further up the standings despite securing their title, so are not taking a rest. GBR 2380 Courtney Bilbrough & Hatty Ward move up to second girls.
Top 3 in silver at the moment is dominated by the British Isles with GBR 17 Matt Venables & John Mather, GBR 2345 Piers Nicholls & Samuel Grade and brothers IRL 2362 Harray & Johnny Durcan.
Bronze is now running on a different format and will be reseeded each day as the whole fleet competes for those top places. The top 10 includes GBR 2217 Lauren Miles & Catlin Jones, GBR 2379 Hannah Bristow & Emily Covell, and GBR 2344 James Hammett & Ben Todd.
Tomorrow the forecast is wet. Intention is to start racing at 11am, with 5 races scheduled. Will there be more change in the top 10, we shall see. Barbeque on at the moment, let's see what tomorrow brings for the action.