Mumm 36 Worlds Overall

Barlo Plastics confirmed her second place behind 'Thomas I Punkt' in the Mumm 36 World Championships with a confident display of sailing in a difficult last race. A poor start saw Barlo Plastics trapped directly behind 'Breeze 1' and more worryingly under her closest rival for second place, 'Moby Lines'. Forced to tack away, Barlo Plastics skipper and tactician, Adrian Stead could only hope that the wind would swing to the right, allowing him to tack in over the fleet who with the exception of 'New Yorker' were heading left. "Not getting a good start wasn't the end of it," Stead said. "We got straight onto port and it came back right. Whatever loss there had been out of the start was immediately a gain. 'New Yorker' ducked us and went hard to the right. We could see there was more there but we weren't prepared to take the risk."

Both Barlo Plastics and 'New Yorker' had their prayers answered in duplicate with not only a big shift the to right but also more pressure. With the bulk of the fleet bobbing in light winds to leeward, only 'Thomas I Punkt' was able to get back to the right to offer any serious challenge. At the top mark 'New Yorker' led from 'Thomas I Punkt' and Barlo Plastics. Tellingly, 'Moby Lines' was furthest to the left struggling to hold on even to third in the series.

With the wind now well to the right, the run became something of a procession a superb gybe-set by Barlo Plastics and a well sailed run allowed them to close distance on 'Thomas I Punkt' still behind 'New Yorker'.

A conservative second beat saw Barlo Plastics up to second at the top with 'New Yorker' still leading. A slightly more tactical run saw no major place changes at the front, though 'Mean Machine', 'Breeze 1', 'Elbe III' and 'Moby Lines' played a very close game. While a scramble for the minor places remained, the top two places in the series were effectively decided from this point on.

Coming away from the mark Stead had to make a decision as to which of his closest rival to cover as 'Moby Lines' went right and 'Breeze 1' went to the left. With a good grasp of the points situation, Stead had no problem making a decision. "'Breeze 1' had to get two boats between them and us so I wasn't that worried. The boat to watch was 'Moby Lines', but I wasn't that worried as they had themselves on the right foot from when they went left out of the start. The only worry was that there were a few clouds around and it was shifting around enough that even until the last bit to the finish we couldn't be certain what would happen," said Stead.

For those behind there was still a tightly contested battle for third in the series. Approaching the line it looked as if 'Mean Machine' would get in ahead of 'Thomas I Punkt' and 'Moby Lines', giving 'Moby Lines' a sufficient cushion to take third overall. A clear and obvious foul by 'Mean Machine' on 'Thomas I Punkt' as they crossed saw the Dutch peeling off to perform penalty turns before crossing the line putting 'Breeze 1' in third with 'Moby Lines' fourth. For 'New Yorker' even her big gamble and final race win could do nothing to lift her above fifth.

Commenting on the series performance, Stead spoke for the entire crew when he said, "Overall we are pretty pleased. We had the opportunity to win it and I think we can go away from here safe in the knowledge that we are a force to be reckoned with."

Stead was also clear that there are improvement to be made to the boat before the Champagne Mumm Admiral's Cup. "We will be getting a couple of new sails, certainly a new number three. We sailed this regatta with one of the Italian's old sails and it was shocking. Luckily we only had one beat with it. And a new mainsail. This one is not what we wanted design wise so we will have a new one of those." There will also be a difference in the way the boat is sailed as part of a team, rather than as an individual effort as in Kiel.

Results:

1 Thomas I Punkt K Jablinski  6 1 6 1 2 4 1 2 1 4  28
2 Barlo Plastics A Stead      3 2 4 3 3 1 9 1 8 2  36
3 Breeze 1       T Hutchinson 2 4 3 6 4 5 6 4 2 3  39
4 Moby Lines     E Cheffi     1 3 2 2 6 7 2 6 5 6  40
5 New Yorker     C Larson     5 6 1 5 7 2 4 8 3 1  42
6 Mean Machine   B Beeking    7 5 811 1 6 7 5 4 7  61
7 Pro Sail 3     A Willim     4 8 7 4 8 3 5 711 9  66
8 Resco          W Sunesson   9 7 5 7 9 8 311 611  76
9 Elbe III       J Diesch     810 9 8 5 9 8 3 7 5  72
10 The Next      H Bloemers  10 910 9101010 9 911  97