Int'l 14 World Championships - Rainstorm threatens race five start
by Tracey Johnstone on 13 Jan 2015
Repeat Offender’s Tom and Steve Edmunds look more like they are wisely heading for cover of the club than preparing for Race 5. Rhenny Cunningham
2015 International 14 World Championship - Torrential rain is engulfing Geelong’s Corio Bay affecting visibility and threatening a delay to the start of today’s crucial Race five of the 2015 International 14 World Championships.
PRO Ross Wilson said the 15 to 20 knot north-easterly was good enough for a race, but the visibility was a concern. His race management have decided to head out to survey the course area. 'If it’s okay out there, we will go on time, so it’s best you be ready' Wilson said at this morning’s competitor briefing.
Series leader Glen Truswell (GBR) voiced his concerns about being able to find the marks. 'At home we race in conditions like this sometimes. Here the courses are bigger than we use for our club races because of the big fleet. Maybe once we get around the first lap it might get easier,' Truswell said.
Wilson agreed that he would look into a strategy to counter this problem including the use of a strobe light on both the wing mark and bottom mark boats.
Once Race five is complete, a drop will come into play in the results. This will then leave another two races in the series, which finishes on Friday, for the leaders to cement their podium positions.
At the top of the table are Glen Truswell/Sam Pascoe with five points. In second place is Ben McGrane/James Hughes (GBR) with nine points. They have had a tight battle with both Truswell and McGrane racing consistently. Truswell’s leading position going into Race five is strong, but not absolute.
'There is a hell of a long way to go. We just keep treating every race as a new one knowing at the end to win the world title we are going to need really tidy scores. The fat lady is a long, way away as yet so we will keep our heads down and keep working towards nailing ones, two, threes,' Truswell said after his team’s win in Race three.
Second and third place are also far from being locked in. Four-time and defending World Champion Archie Massey and Harvey Hillary (GBR) are keeping close tabs on defending Australian Champion Brad Devine and Ian Furlong (AUS). There is a two point difference between the two. The advantage to Massey is that so far he has the lesser worst race result to drop.
Today’s Race five of the regatta was scheduled to start at 2pm.
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