2022 505 Pre-Worlds at the Royal Cork Yacht Club - Day 2
by Jordan Spencer 6 Aug 2022 21:19 BST
3-13 August 2022
505 Pre-Worlds at Crosshaven Day 2 © Christophe Favreau /
www.christophefavreau.com
Day 2 of the 505 Pre-Worlds at Cork in Ireland saw the final three races of the six-race series and there was a mighty battle for the title.
Conditions were different but the same as yesterday. The PRO held the fleet ashore as the prevailing Nor-Wester was expected to die and spin to the South or South-West. Expectations were met and the fleet headed out into a light seabreeze.
Racing was two windward leeward courses of two laps and the third added a triangle.
The first race was set at 190 degrees with the breeze around 6-8kn. Conditions weren't stable, with the breeze phasing up to 20-30 degrees early on. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great race for the gate boat, local Alex Barry who is the head of the organising committee for this event, sailing with Richie Leonard had the duties and suffered. The boats that worked the middle seemed to benefit the most. The star of the show was Stuart McNay and Caleb Paine. They won just in front of yesterdays star boat Nathan Batchelor and Sam Paine.
Race two saw a big swing to the right just as the race started. With a gate start this saw the pathfinder knock into the fleet, causing a very rare abandonment of that race. The course was reset to 220 and we were under way again. For this race Ian Pinnell and Carl Smit were the gate and they to got no love. Again, the star of the show was McNay and Paine, winning in the light phasing conditions. Right behind them were Morgan Pinckney and Garrett Brown. Morgan is an 18-year-old and the second youngest in the fleet, he has been sailing in Long Beach with Howie Hamlin and friends learning the ropes quickly. He and Garrett look to have the goods matching at the front of a quality fleet. The third boat was Batchelor and Pascoe (7 points after 5 races with a drop), setting up a great battle for the series with McNay and Paine (9 points after 5 races with a drop), as we go into the last race.
Race 3 finally saw the gate boat have some love Andy Beeckman and Reeve Dunne had the duties and they continued hard to the right to create a sizeable lead at the top mark. They continued to work the right on the next beat, extending with good pace. Meanwhile McNay and Paine were one place in front of Batchelor and Pascoe in third and fourth respectively. At the end the two teams swapped positions ensuring Batchelor and Pascoe were the winners of the Pre-Worlds.
Tomorrow brings a layday as sailors will have the time to complete their final preparations. Racing for the World Championships starts Monday 8th of August, with conditions looking to be extremely light until Thursday. If so, maybe it will be one of the two boats who stood out at the Pre-Worlds to take the prize.
Watch for daily race reports and video highlights packages.
www.int505.org/2022-world-championship-cork