B14 Worlds Championships at Yacht Club de Carnac - Day 4
by Tim Harrison 1 Aug 22:37 BST
25-28 July 2019
Firstly thanks to the team at YC Carnac for laying on a great BBQ the night before, stacks of food was just what we needed after four races and plenty of wine to wash it down.
After a bit of wait ashore the fleet launched into a variable force 1. It wasn't looking great, we had a general recall and the wind vanished during the restart so the race officer sensible put the AP up and more waiting while the wind swung round to the west and gradually built to what turned into a great late afternoon/evening of racing with the wind blowing a force 3 to 4 by the end of the fourth race.
The story of the day was that Harken (Nick Craig and Toby Lewis) scored an impressive 4 bullets. Craig Garmston and Louis Chapman the overnight leaders from yesterday had another solid day scoring 3,9,2,2 today so either of the two favourites could clinch it in the final two races tomorrow, but as things stand it is advantage to the British team with a one point advantage with five wins to the Australian's three wins.
So other stories of the day also to note:
- Team France (The Cadre brothers) had a great race 5 & 6 showed excellent light airs speed with two seconds.
- The Black Flag and U flag found some victims today, most notable Trunk (Kathy Sharrat and Josh Willace) and Admiral Trailers (Tony Blackmoor and Char Cooper) were both struck in two of the races today.
- Two others who had strong days are The Nude (Rchie Reynolds and Lisa Macmillan) scored 6,5,3,5 and Leaky Pipes (Leaky and Gerry Fermor) scoring 7,3,4,6 and both have shot up the rankings to 5th and 8th respectively.
- There is a big question over who will be taking the final place on the podium with the likely contenders being Brightmile scored 4, UFD, 8, 3, the consistent Anthill Mob score 5,4,6,4 and the emerging Nude team who's points will look a lot better when the next discard falls into play when race 9 is sailed.
- The battle for 6th is looking like another Ashes battle. Upwind it is advantage to Bonework (Scott Cunningham and Joey Randall), downwind Seavolution (Mark Barnes and Charlotte Horlock) seem to have the edge. Joey said, "We footed down and gassed him at the windward mark on the last beat, they had to put in a double tack to make the windward mark but they still beat us to finish."
Tomorrow's forecast is looking light but hopefully we will get to complete the series and conclude the Ashes battle for the main title and also the minor placings.
Full results after Day 4 can be found here.