Aigua Charter GP14 Worlds at Looe Sailing Club - Day 2

Aigua Charter GP14 Worlds at Looe day 2 © www.SailPics.co.uk

Aigua Charter GP14 Worlds at Looe day 2 © www.SailPics.co.uk

The Aigua Charter GP14 World Championships being held in Looe on the Cornish South Coast; 130 boats pitting their wits against man, tide and wind. The forecast for Monday was bang on the money, a south westerly force 3 with the odd gust which may have just topped that. The problem for many was the size of the rolling waves that were marching towards the coastline. They were just travelling a few knots too fast for the majority of helms to catch, the breeze not getting the boats to a high enough velocity to get the boats surfing often enough. The day was sponsored by Harken, which meant that prizes for both races two & three could well replace the over worked spinnaker sheet pulleys as crews did their utmost to promote the catching of the rollers.

The windward mark for Race One was to the South-East of St Georges Island, however with an earlier start and a later tide, the flow was definitely flooding in, giving those sailors who knew the tidal characteristics, as it swirled through the gap between the island and the mainland, a distinct advantage. However before the fleet could get on with the racing, a clean start was needed, the gate for race 2 being opened by Richie Bennett crewed by Sarah Davies. The fleet were way too anxious to get away, compounded by a windshift, resulting in the fleet being too high, the general recall flag having to be raced across the starboard tack boats. The Race Committee got the next start away after a tweak of the windward mark location to account for the change in wind direction. Right paid apparently, although it was tough to find a clean lane with so many high quality sailors looking for their own clear path to the windward mark.

First to pop their kite up were Shane MacCarthy & Andy Thompson, continuing the early domination of the HD branded sails. However as the race progressed the Goacher pairing of Ian Dobson & Andy Tunnicliffe backed up their 2nd from yesterday with their first bullet of the week, Mike Senior & Chris White registering their first top three finish with a 2nd place, Neil Platt & Derek Hill having a much better race taking 3rd. Leading the Silver fleet home, showing many of Gold sailors a clean transom were Andy Clewer & Jez Nickolls coming in a creditable 12th, the top Bronze being Chris Winters & Julian Forde just getting into the top 40.

After a decent break for lunch in a very choppy Looe Bay with numerous sailors and Race Office crew struggling to keep their lunch where it belonged, race two's gate was being opened by Shane MacCarthy. The pack were released without incident, although by now the different skill levels were becoming more apparent as although the wind had not really picked up, there were starting to be the odd waves which, if sailed slightly out, slammed the bow into the next trough, all but halting momentum. There were places to be gained on the reaches too, going high often giving a distinct advantage, despite sailing a longer course.

A duel ensued as the race reached its climax, Mike Senior & Chris White defending a charge from Ian Dobson & Andy Tunnicliffe - the wind for the latter part of the race had started to drop, the waves though were still quite challenging. For whatever reason, as the leaders were approaching the line, Dobson threw a violent tack in to squeeze his way underneath Senior. The race results show that the aggressive tack went too far, showing that even the most capable sailors can get it wrong, a sixth place from an assured 2nd. It does show how close to the limits the top sailors push the boats, knowing that the difference between 2nd & 1st this early in the week may be the margin come Friday's prize-giving.

Passing Dobson as he was righting the boat to take 2nd was the Burge/Wagstaff partnership, 3rd in this race was the current GP14 National Champion crew, Christian Birrell, following his victory at Abersoch in 2011 whilst he was sailing with 470 silver medallist Stuart Bithell. Christian is being crewed this week by Ben Ainsworth. Further down the proceedings although not by far, were Mark Wolf & Alain Renaud as lead Silver fleet boat. Top Bronze were Chris Winters & Julian Forde, again showing that they are really comfortable pushing the sharp end of the fleet.

A mention must go to the quality of the youth sailors coming through in the GP fleet, several of our top youths have had namedrops in the reports from the first two days, Sam & Connie, Chris & Julian. This is going to go to the wire by the time Friday comes, as currently leading the way with consistent results are the current Youth Champions, Sam Watson & Andy Hunter, lying in 18th overall, just two places ahead of Sam & Connie.

With a potential lay day on Wednesday, it's all to go for on Tuesday with races 4 & 5, knowing the opportunity should be there for bruises to heal before the final push for the World title. The top three are separated by 3 points going into the third day, the top 5 only by 8 points. Lighter airs tomorrow building to gusts of 35 knots by Friday – could be fun!

Results after 3 races can be found here.