| 2004
AEC
Wayfarer
Worlds the fourth day of racing - 1 photos by Bob Thayer (note: all of these photos were - in larger size - on the competitors' CD created by Bob) |
| Bob appears to
have
passed on Friday's first race, race #7 of the series.
And of course,
Murphy's Law applied, as that race was the SHADES moment
of
glory. But I suppose I shouldn't complain. Poor Ian
Porter and Kevan
Gibb almost never made it into any of the pictures!
Don't get me wrong.
The photos are great. But a few of Ian in action might
have been most
illuminating, not to mention that the Scavenger
team more than
earned star billing. It was a sunny day with a brisk, cool offshore breeze from the north, and again, a high of only 20C. Beyond that, my own recollections of the day's racing are sketchy at best, so I'll again quote the Mace/Fletcher report on the two Olympic course races sailed on the Friday: Another blustery day, but today was choppy water conditions over moderate swell, rather than the big rollers of Thursday. Race 7 was the first chance of the championships to get some real speed up on the three sail reaches. Mace/Rhodes rounded the windward mark in 6th place but pulled through to second place behind Porter/Gibb at the gybe mark in a tight and delicately balanced F5 reach. Local boats Schönborn/Bennett and the Rahns demonstrated that they too can hack the stronger stuff notching up 3rd and 5th places respectively, their best results of the event. So, Ian and Kevan were in their element and won going away, clinching yet another World title in a way that left no doubt of their superiority. Toby Mace and Rachael Rhodes notched a 2nd while their main rivals, Fletcher and Harris, faltered (9th, 13th), and moved to the front of the runner-up stakes. For a change, Uncle Al and Marc rounded in the top 10. They sailed sound free legs but made their money playing the shifts on the final two upwind legs, and surprised themselves with a 3rd in conditions where the Brits usually axe them. This was SHADES' best finish of the series, her best placing in fact, since Al and his wife, Julia, won race 2 of the 1980 Worlds at Tawas. Team Barker in Doubloons had their upwind speed back for this one, placing 4th, just ahead of a second Canadian team to hit the top 5: Peter and Alex Rahn for whom this 5th was also their best finish of the series. Søren Jensen continued his fine series with a 6th, while Stewart Reed and Robin Albert had their best placing of a consistent series with a 7th. After 4 sub-par performances in the first 5 races, Mark and Paul Taylor of MSC would end the series in a blaze of glory: four straight single-digit placings. This one was an 8th ahead of the always dangerous Neil Fletcher. Brian Jeffs and Scott Bamford (10th) made it four Canadians in the top ten as they beat out Roger Challis (11th) and Michael McKechnie (12th). Gordon Harris could do no better than a 13th in this one and would now have to play catch-up if he and Emma were to take the series runner-up spot ahead of Waldringfield clubmates, Mace and Fletcher. Our second Danish entry, Stephan and Troels Nandrup-Bus scored a nice 14th in this one, edging out Ted and Wendy Gadd who completed the top 15. |
Other race 7
series
bests not already mentioned were recorded by:
|
 |
| Alan Bell and
Gordon
Reid put Almera through her paces during our
lunch break. ... |
 |
| Between races was fine opportunity to get boat
portraits such
as this one of Finitor with ... ... |
 |
| ... Stewart Reed
(l) and Robin Albert. ... |
 |
| Or this shot of
Michele Parish and Richard Johnson (r). ... |
 |
| Peter and
Jonathan (r)
Ayres speed towards the camera as Jesper and Søren
dawdle along
behind them. ... |
 |
| Kit Wallace and
David
Weatherston (1037) and the Taylor brothers (7673) scream
along on a
broad reach while Steve Carroll (6066) and Reg Bunt
conserve their
energies by heaving to. ... |
 |
| A well bundled up
Joanne smiles for the photographer as Roger Shepherd
cruises by. Also taking it easy are John and Dolores de Boer (7351), Hans Gottschling and Nick Seraphinoff (864). ... |
 |
| A nice close-up
of
Michael McKechnie and Simon Turner with John Dowling and
Terry Holt
cruising along behind them. ... |
 |
| Jeff and Barry
Cox
(foreground) and Ed and Winnie Gillespie go straight for
the camera. ... |
 |
| Bob (r)
and
Scott Kennedy, far from Fanshawe, as they ... ... |
 |
| ... meet Liz
Feibusch
and Frances Lilley (10000). Ted Gadd (7699) and Steve
Carroll in the
background. ... |
 |
| Relaxed, hove to and happy: George
Blanchard (r)
and Mike Codd ... |
 |
| Ample winds as
the
day's second race is about ... ... |
 |
| ... to ... ... |
 |
| ... get ... ... |
 |
| ... underway.
Fine
starts for Graham Barker (8888) and Ian Porter (7588)
but John Goudie
(9812) is not moving and will become the meat in the
sandwich between
Ian to windward and Toby to leeward. ... |
 |
| Gordon Harris
(968)
crosses just behind duelling starboard tackers, Graham
Barker (8888)
and Roger Challis (9174) who will end up leading the
pack around ... ... |
 |
| ...
the
windward mark,
just ahead of Ian (7588) and Graham (8888). Poor Roger and Mark in 9174: Little
do they know
that their mast
will break just after they gybe onto the second reach! Just arriving on port is
Toby (far right) while between Ian and Graham,
we can see Guy
Hacon (8686) and Neil Fletcher. Off Graham's leech is
Dave Platt of
TSCC. After rounding the mark, Ian and Kevan
(7588) will put on
quite the show as they go low, planing under spinnaker
and under
apparent complete control to the gybe mark where they
hold a
comfortable lead. A nonchalant-looking gybe for Scavenger
- as
far as your Uncle Al could tell from a considerable
distance astern
while struggling to remain upright under spi - followed
by a rousing
plane to the leeward mark, left Kevan and Ian with a
lead they would
not relinquish! |
| The Waldringfield reporters saw it as follows: Roger Challis made it to the windward mark first again, only to be overtaken on the reaches, now gusting F6, by Fletcher/Edwards and Mace/Rhodes. Meanwhile Porter/Gibb sneaked through in a cloud of spray down to leeward on a hairy, edge of seat reach. Mace/Rhodes gybed outside Challis/Johnston but then the Challis mast decided to call it a day, and Fletcher/Edwards couldn’t hold the lay-line and had to drop the kite. This left Porter/Gibb first at the leeward mark, followed by Mace/Rhodes. |