B14 World Championship at Woollahra Sailing Club - Day 4

With two days of lost racing the race officer was determined to get four races in on Thursday. This was made apparent at the last evenings entertainment "Bugger the Bone" - a B14 tradition that perhaps hasn't delivered crews at the top of their game the following day.

The evening started with Adrian Beswick the Tassie Chairperson challenging Robyn Tames our esteemed Race Officer to Chubby Bunnies! It usually involves stuffing as many fluffy marshmallows into your mouth as you can. This version started with eating chillies, a challenge Robyn was more than capable of! Much to the dismay of Bezzer! For every two marshmallows the contestants needed to shout "chubby bunny."

Needless to say Robyn was far and away the winner with her parting shot being, "and don't forget there are four races tomorrow!"

The rest of the Bugger the Bone event was memorable for those who attended and may have even have a psychological impact down the line!

So onto Thursday catch up day. With the whole fleet expecting four races, crews turned up in the morning rain expecting a southerly 10 to 15 knts. How wrong could we be. A lovely little sail out soon turned into a burn downwind to the starting area. As the wind increased the sea state also become more random and difficult.

I'm not sure how to describe the conditions suffice to say that most of the time it wasn't 10knts or even close. More like 15 to 20 gusting 25knts at times with a mixed sea state and large shifts. A very difficult day for most. Oh, and biblical rain at times!

From the start line in the middle of the harbour off Watsons Bay we mostly headed towards the Vaucluse Bay making the most of the compression around Shark Point and the lift into Rose Bay and the windward marks. However this wasn't always the way to go and those going right and staying in the steadier breeze also gained at times.

Whichever way paid it was Chris Bateman and Lucy Loughton in IRL774 Squirrel who dominated the day with three firsts and a second giving them 7pts overall. Craig Garmston and Paul Fleming AUS375 Snatch in second with a 3, 3, 3, 2 scoreline on 13pts, and on equal points with a 2, 2, 1, 3 scoreline is Nick Craig and Tobytastic GBR801 Harken.

Only four points separate the next three boats from fourth to sixth.

But the real stories are those of the fleet. Stories of heroics and stupidity that will be remembered for many years to come. The jib cleat that was mended using string theory, the youngsters in the association boat who capsized more than ten times, the broken toe stubbed on the centreboard during the tack, the face punched by someone in another boat on the start line! (an accident by all accounts)

These stories and many more will go down in the history of the Sydney Harbour Worlds.

THEY TOLD US US IT WOULD BE SUNNY AND 30 DEGREES!!!

Event website: www.b14worlds.com