2017 Blind Fleet Racing World Championship - Overall
by Lucy Hodges 19 Sep 2017 11:28 BST
11-17 September 2017
GBR woke on the final day with all to play for in the B1, B3 fleets. The wind was light from the South South Westerly which through the morning swung to the West. The B2 and B3 were out first with two races scheduled.
B2 had secured Gold with a day to spare, but were looking to keep their clean sweep of firsts, but went out to give Canada and USA a strong day of racing. GBR match raced USA out to the right of the start, ending the week as USA had started with hunting GBR down. GBR showed strong skills and tactics, tacking on each shift, seeing them take two wins, ending the regatta with straight bullets.
The B3s had a point between them going into the last two races. With the wind shifting all the time it was the teams with their heads out of the boat that came out on top. Justin Smith caught all the shifts to take a win and Jonny Cormack came in 3rd. It was down to the last race seeing GBRa and GBRb go head-to-head and with a call of starboard from GBRb, Justin Smith saw GBRa Jonny Cormack take a penalty turn. It was then down to the last two legs, Jonny Cormack worked the shifts and rounded the top mark in first, taking the win to become World Champion and GBRb Justin Smith took silver.
The B1s were in joint first going into the last day of racing. The wind had dropped but was still shifty and patchy. All teams were pushing hard on the start seeing a general recall, but racing got under way at the next attempt and in all races the teams swapped places on both the beats and the runs, seeing those that got on the left hand side of the beat often come out in the lead. GBR's B1 team battled hard, but it was not meant to be but after a good week of racing they took silver.
After a strong week of racing from all teams, Great Britain became overall World Champions, seeing them take the cup back to the UK. We thank the Sheboygan Yacht Club, SEAS and all the volunteers that helped make this event happen.
It has been amazing having Steve Irish coaching the team during the Worlds, supporting through what has been some close racing, we are truly grateful.
We owe a large thank you to all our sponsors and followers for supporting the team throughout training and during the Worlds; Marine Skills Academy, Dubarry of Irland, Gill, Adidas, Barton Marine, Aquapac, Optimum Time and Morris.
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