Volvo Oman Laser Championships at Ras al Hamra Boat Club
by Tony Van Thiel 19 Apr 2011 20:47 BST
14-15 April 2011
The Volvo 2011 RAHBC Oman Open Championship for Lasers was sailed for the 29th time from the boat club beach. 15 sailors competed in the event organised by the sailing section of the RAHBC and the Oman Laser Association (OLA).
16 year old youngster Alex Rice won the event with just 8 points out of 7 races (an almost repeat of last year when he ended 3rd behind 2 champions from Qatar). Second place was for RAHBC Commodore and event organiser Tony van Thiel (12 points) with Sailing Captain and best Lady Aly Brandenburg in third place (21 points). 4th place was for John Ambrose who did very well in a strong fleet considering he is only 13 yrs of age. The youth showed again they can beat the older more experienced sailors!
Thursday started with light Easterly winds gradually strengthening throughout the afternoon. This created demanding sailing conditions in the first few races with lots of wind patches and shifts. For the sailor this means he has to continuously evaluate where he is going to sail his boat for optimum speed. In the first race Aly went left whilst Tony and some others thought the right hand side was better. They were wrong. Aly was 300m ahead at the first mark and kept it that way to the end. The following 4 races established the pattern of the end result. Alex won 3 of them and Tony 1. To note were two second places of David Boeyinga and a 3rd place of Abdul Hakeem Al-Kiyumi from Castaways in the 3rd race of the day. Hakeem ended lower than expected as he could not return for the races on the second day - his wife delivered a baby girl congratulations!
Friday saw a completely different wind pattern: Westerly gradually weakening and tuning North West. This combined with a fairly strong westerly current made for some very challenging and exiting racing. Alex won the first one, Tony the second. Aly followed as 3rd and John as 4th in both races. During the final lap of the last race the wind died completely (as if someone switched it off). The fleet was send back to beach for de-rigging and cleaning the boats and the price giving ceremony that followed.
Prizes were awarded to all participants by Volvo MHD representatives Rakesh Malhotra, Brendan Lopez and Umesh Rao. VOLVO has long history in their link with sailing in the world and MHD has been the title sponsor for this event for the fourth year.
Tony awarded liquid prizes to all participants with mugs for first 3. He thanked the Officers Of the Day (OOD’s) Fred Rourke and Sam Mason assisted by Sam, Olly, Alec and Lucie, for the excellent management of the races. He also thanked all the competitors for taking part, the RAHRC staff and management for the great facilities and VOLVO-MHD for the sponsorship. All in all an excellent regatta which highlighted again the excellent potential for sailing in Oman.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Helm | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | Alex Rice | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| 2 | Tony van Thiel | 8 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 12 |
| 3 | Aly Bandenburg | 1 | 4 | 4 | 6 | DNS | 3 | 3 | 21 |
| 4 | John Ambrose | 6 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 27 |
| 5 | David Boeyinga | 4 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 2 | DNS | DNS | 39 |
| 6 | Fred Park | 3 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 4 | DNS | DNS | 40 |
| 7 | Paul Frost | 5 | 9 | 6 | 11 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 43 |
| 8 | Victor Ogg | 7 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 43 |
| 9 | Jonathan Evans | 11 | 11 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 44 |
| 10 | Peter Thietz | 9 | 14 | 11 | 15 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 64 |
| 11 | Richard Williamson | 12 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 5 | DNS | DNS | 65 |
| 12 | Steve Williams | 13 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 11 | 67 |
| 13 | Abdul Hakeem Al-Kiyumi | DNS | 8 | 3 | 9 | DNS | DNS | DNS | 68 |
| 14 | Jamie Stewart | 14 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 8 | 10 | 68 |
| 15 | Irene Gomez | 10 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 9 | 9 | 69 |
Click here for full details and pictures of the event.