Indigo ISAF Team Racing Worlds Overall

Kiwis win Indigo ISAF World Team Racing Championship

In a cliffhanger end to the Indigo ISAF World Team Racing Championship at Dun Laoghaire (Dublin, Ireland) the young New Zealand squad led by the Murdoch family from the Bay of Islands emerged victorious over USA2 after an afternoon of delays and light winds.

The series went down to the last race and for a time it seemed that the United States had won Gold. However, a controversial incident on the penultimate leg of the race by USA2 saw the result reversed by the International Jury ashore.

During the final race, the New Zealanders were holding a slim lead thanks to an 'On-course-side' start by an American. Keeping their lead until the penultimate leg a USA2 team boat slipped into first place, placing the leaders under pressure approaching the final leeward mark on the 'W' shapped course.

A right of way incident within a few boat-lengths of the leeward mark was protested by the second Kiwi crew and confirmed by the nearest Umpire Boat. However, Fallon and Boardman only took their 720 degree penalty turn having completed their mark rounding and some distance after and obstructed the last Kiwi boat in the process.

Almost simultaneously Chief Umpire John Doerr black flag protested the offending American boat for failure to complete its penalty turns in time. As the final leg progressed, the USA2 team made significant gains by its leading team mmber sailing the leading Kiwi away from the line allowing the Americans take a 2-3-5 winning combination finish.

However, after the jury met to consider the matter once ashore, USA2 were penalised six penalty points and New Zealand were announced as the new World Champions with the United States second team taking the Silver medal. Timothy Fallon's USA2 fully accepted the Jury's decision and each sailor shook hands with the jury after being informed of the outcome.

Meanwhile, shortly before the final was sailed, Australia One and Great Britain One met to decide the bronze place. Pre-event favourites from Spinnaker Sailing Club in the UK quickly asserted themselves in a 2-1 victory.

In an earlier shock outcome to the series, defending world champions USA1 were ousted by their second team at the quarter-final stage. Josh Adams and his squad had been joint favourites with GBR1 going into the championship and certainly placed their stamp on the event early on when they one all 17 races of their opening stage 'round robin' that encompassed 153 races.

The host nation ended in fifth place out of the 18 nations after going down 3-0 to the New Zealanders in their first race of the day. It was a close sailed affair with a more determined and co-ordinated Irish side holding the lead until yards before the finishing line. However, on the finishing-line the key Irish boat was squeezed into sixth place and the Kiwis continued their march towards the medal podium.

Meanwhile, as the Czech Republic prepares to host the next Team Racing World Championship in 2001, their team in Dun Laogahire took home a fitting boost to their plans by winning the Silver fleet sail-offs. The French squad also came in for commendation for being the Silver fleet runner-up team at their first ever team racing event.

Event Website: www.rsgyc.ie/teamracing