International 14 World Championships at California - Day 1
by Rich Roberts 11 Sep 2006 13:04 BST
7-16 September 2006
Some of the world's best International 14 class sailors will be sailing on eggshells the rest of the week. As the host Alamitos Bay Yacht Club's own Howard Hamlin and crew Euan McNicol of Australia won the first race of the I-14 World Championship Regatta Sunday, followed by Katie Nurton and Nigel Ash of Great Britain, other big names took a big hit for crossing the starting line early in the two-lap, 12-nautical mile race.
The 10 guilty boats among 71 entries included past champions Robert Greenhalgh and Roddy Bridge of Great Britain, and Grant Geddes of Australia, along with U.S. Nationals runners-up Tina and Trevor Baylis of Santa Cruz, Calif. and Archie Massey, captain of Britain's World Team Racing championship team last Friday.
All will discard the 72 points they received for their indiscretions on Thursday following the fifth of seven races, but that's the only throwout allowed. Massey said, "There will be a tactical change the test of the week. Our starts will be more conservative."
None knew for sure they had jumped the gun until they heard only silence instead of a finish whistle from the race committee boat - and Hamlin, trailing Massey by about two minutes, said he didn't realize he had won until Massey failed to receive the winner's horn. Massey actually started fine, but he had crossed the line during the final minute of the starting sequence in violation of the "I" flag posted by principal race officer Mark Townsend that requires boats to go around one end of the line if they are over at any time. Townsend doesn't like to order general recalls when offending boats can be identified - and he said photos of Sunday's start supported their calls.
Massey said, in retrospect, "We weren't over at the gun, but we were probably over at 45 seconds [earlier] and then went back [across the line to start]." They just didn't return properly around one end of the line. George Nurton, his crew, said, "It's very hard to see just where you are, so we weren't sure."
Nurton is the brother of Katie Nurton, Sunday's runner-up for whom the overall result was bittersweet. "I have to tell you," she said, "when we were building these boats a year ago I was saying how good it would be to be first and second around the first mark of the Worlds."
Later, when race chairman Chris Ericksen told Massey, "Tough luck" during the post-race social hour, the Brit replied, "Yeah, but the beer's here, and it's cold." Notably, Massey found the light wind he preferred Sunday - about 6 knots tops - but saw it go to waste. The recent pattern has been for the sea breeze to fill in starting at about 2:30.