Cadet Worlds at Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 4
by Andy Shorrock 3 Jan 2010 15:07 GMT
26 December 2009 - 4 January 2010
GBR take race 8 - World Championships remains wide open
After a fabulous New Year's Eve Party thrown by the host nation and a lay day to recover, the World Championship Cadet fleet had a delayed start in Buenos Aires to wait for the light 4-7 knot breeze to fill in. In a change to previous days, the River Plate was flat and the fleet were able to start first time. A strong left to right cross current flowed for the first beat that favoured the port end starters and the competitors were challenged to spot the best winds across the course.
Will Kennedy & Rhos Hawes (GBR 8539) made a great start at the port end of the line and sailed a strong first leg to round the windward mark in the lead and were never challenged. They were followed by ARG 8054 (Santiago Romero & Benjamin Heredia) and then strong contender AUS 4887 (Alec & Samantha Bailey). At the leeward mark with Will & Rhos leading the next best GBR boats were Abigail Croft & Matthew Shorrock (GBR 8363) in 7th and Chris Brewer & Ole Alcock (GBR 8997) in 10th.
As the race progressed, Abigail & Matthew managed to find good breeze on the 2nd beat to climb to 4th whilst Chris & Ole found a large wind hole to drop to 23rd. AUS 4887 climbed to 2nd and ARG 8023 (Clara Cosentino and Cristobal Billoch) climbed to 3rd.
Only one race was possible today with the late start and the wind still light.
With 2 days and 4 races to go, the World Championship is wide open amongst the top 6 or 7 boats. Consistency in the top places will be critical as the 2nd discard has now been counted.
In the promotional fleet, Mary Henderson and Ben Shorrock had a strong race leading for much of the time but an altercation at the finish line dropped then to 4th to remain in that position overall.
Full results can be found here and more photographs can be found here.