F18 World Championships at Ballyholme Yacht Club - Day 2
by Mark Mackey 9 Jul 2014 20:47 BST
4-11 July 2014
The F18's experienced 3 seasons today in Bangor Northern Ireland at the 2014 F18 World
Championships. After last night's "home hospitality" and with a few sore heads, the day
started off with little wind and vertical rain. Thankfully the forecasted breeze and sunshine
started to set in just as the fleet went afloat, and the day finished with 20 knots, sunshine
and rolling waves.
After only 1 race yesterday, the fleet were a little eager resulting in 2 general recalls and
the resultant black flag start when everyone got away clean in just 6 knots of breeze.
Despite the delay and being ferried out to the start in a high powered rib, local helm
Adrian Allen was still 4 minutes late for the start having had to go to his daughter's
graduation this morning at Queens University. Crew Barry Swanston was tearing what little
of his hair he has left out waiting.
Most of the fleet plumped for the right side of the course and GBR's Grant Piggot and
Simon Farren found themselves first at the windward mark with a large lead over FRA
Rouges/Souben and GER Tonne/Sunnocks. With a 20 degree shift to the right, a mark
boat was positioned below the gate to signal a course change starboard and shortened.
Unfortunately Grant mistook this for a shortened course and proceeded to the finish line
under spinnaker where he dropped it and turned to watch the others off up the beat. He
somehow managed to regain first place by the next windward but had lost the lead and on
the run was passed by Patrick Demesmaeker and Klass Victor from Royal Belgium Sailing
Club followed by the French Mourniac's and the German Sach brothers.
Thankfully by Race 3, the fleet decided that they were fed up with general recalls and
everyone got away cleanly. Still in light winds, it was the turn of the a clean youth team
from Florida - Taylor Reiss and Matthew Whitehead - to show the rest of fleet a clean pair
of hulls and lead the way home from the first mark. The Sachs brothers backed up their
earlier light wind showing to take second and the overall lead.
A little more wind for Race 4 got things a bit excited. Gunnar Larsen and Ferdinand van
West were clean first off the start line followed out by Reiss/Whitehead over to the left.
Unfortunately for Glenn Ashby and Brett Goodall, a Dutch boat barged in below them
forcing them head to wind at the Committee Boat and having to gybe off and find clean air
behind the rest of the fleet.
At the other end two French boats bounced off the pin end
mark boat onto port and then took out the Irish crew of Dermot McHugh and Siobhan
Keogh. More wind on the left saw many of the boats coming into the windward mark on
port although the extra power made "threading the needle" and finding a gap more easy
than normal. As the breeze started to build there were a few flogging kites on the
downwind legs but Larsen/ van West showed their pedigree to finish ahead of the French
crews of Lois Breeder and Hugo le Pomellec, followed the Mourniac family.
First Irish boat home in Race 4 was local crew Andrew Gallagher and Michael Gunning
despite being squeezed out at the final mark by a boat coming in on port and having to
crash gybe on the wrong side of the course. Unfortunately the protest committee didn't
agree that their shout of protest was within the allotted 3 seconds - something to learn for
next time.
Another visit to the protest room saw the Finnish crew first withdraw their
original protest and then be told that they hadn't completed the course properly as they
had capsized at the bottom mark and drifted past it rounding the other "gate" mark instead
of rerounding the original one. More learning points.
A fourth race of the day, Race 5 saw gust of up to 20 knots and everyone twin wiring. The
Finnish crew found themselves on the wrong side of the start line but everyone else got
away clean. Morgan La Graviere and Armaud Jarlegan from Nantes found themselves first
in front of Glenn Ashby and Brett Goodall at the windward mark.
By the downwind gate Larsen/Van West squeezed ahead of the Australians. Adrian Allen and Barry Swanston were leading the local fleet while many were pitchpoling and capsizing. Others were breaking rudders while one unfortunate crew discovered the "salami slicer" with a
suspected broken arm.
At the end of the second day with 5 races, Larsen/ van West leads from Ashby/Goodall
and the young Americans Reiss/ Whitehead. Tomorrow's forecast looks set for more of the
final conditions with 15-20 knots, rolling seas and sunshine. America's Cup sailor Glenn
Ashby was heard to bemoan the length of the course today hoping for something a bit
shorter tomorrow. Unusually for a crew, Brett however is "loving it' and just can't wait!
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