Mumm 30 World Championships - Day 1

Henri Lloyd Race Day

First Blood

A variety of weather conditions on the first day of the Mumm 30 World Championships tested the skills of all 31 crews, but the man who proved masterful from the benign to the blustery was Walter Geurts from Holland. He and his crew went into the lead overnight, courtesy of two wins and a hard-fought fifth, but he was being chased hard by Britain's Mark Heeley and with eight races to go there was still all to play for...

Race Officer Tony Lovell, of the Royal Southern Yacht Club may have had light airs to deal with early on, but steadily the conditions grew more and more appropriate to the heavy weather gear of the opening three races sponsor, Henri-Lloyd.

First blood went to the Dutch, carrying on their mastery of the Solent after the first ever victory in the Champange Mumm Admiral's Cup in July.

Geurts in Magnumm played some tricky tide and shifting wind to perfection to establish his lead on the second windward leg, stretched it on the run down to the bottom turning gate and was going away when the race was shortened by one leg at the end of the third beat.

After a 40 minute delay, the 31 boats from ten nations had made a clean start on a one-mile course set from Hillhead up into the mouth of Southampton Water. The breeze was light at 6-7 knots, the water flat, the tide flooding west to east, and the wind direction - 300 degrees.

But, despite the wind trying to move further right, it was the boats on the left hand side of the course which came out ahead, Britain's Robin Fielder leading at the first mark.

But, by the time the fleet had come back down under spinnaker, Italy's Antonio Sodo and Massimo Mezzaroma were leading Heeley , up from 5th to 2nd, the American Ed Collins up from 6th to 3rd, and Guerts up from 10th to 4th.

As a new wind-ward mark direction of 315 degrees was signalled, these 4 then contested the podium places, Collins pipping Soldo and Mezzaroma for second, Healey having to be content with 4th and with Frenchman, Jimmy Pahun climbing to 5th as 5 different nations filled the top 5 slots.

New Breeze

A new breeze and a new, shorter race course gave a very different feel to a faster second race, but the same principal players were again in front.

With the skies clearing and some blue showing through, the wind finally moved into its ordained direction and the race started in 15 knots of south westerly.

3 were recalled for a premature start including Pahun, but the rest quickly settled into the sprint up the 1400 yards to the first mark. Britain's Louis Browns in Asterix led the pack, but that man Guerts was tracking him in second place with Heeley third.

Browne held off the Dutch attack on the the first run but Guerts squared his shoulders strongly intothe second beat as the wind, if anything, strengthened at times to over 18 knots and kicked up a little chop on the last of the flooding tide.

Once ahead, Guerts never looked threatened, but Collins, always able to pick up a little extra pace down-wind came through and Browne just squeezed past Heeley on the last 300 yds.

Everyone was down to their heavy weather jibs but, misjudging that the tide had turned and was carrying them down to the start line, there were two general recalls before they were sent cleanly away.

Except for Geurts who found himself in a frightful tangle at the leeward end of the line, tried to tack his way out of trouble, was caught port and starboard and had to take a seven twenty degree penalty turn.

That was the least of some people's problems. There were a dozen wipe-outs on the first run as many rejected a fractional spinnaker option and found themselves over-powered with the mast-head version.

Amazingly, by the end of the second beat of the 1.2 mile course, Geurts was back up to 4th, but even he could not hang on while Collins shredded his spinnaker into confetti.

By now, France's Laurent Sambron with Nantes and St Nazaire was in the lead, having been passed by Holland's Jochen Visser, only to snatch back the advantage when Visser was also flattened close to the bottom of the run.

But, with another 2 legs still to run and the wind now gusting up to 28 knots, the race was far from over - except for Stephen Card in Vocom, who was dismasted. Storming down the final run, came Sodo and Mezzaroma to win from Heeley as Pahun powered his way to 3rd.

Results after Day 1 (top 6 and other British placings):

For further information:
E-mail: m30@1stresults.co.uk
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