Laser Radial Youths World Championships Day 1 – Big spread in top 20

Launching from rigging lawn - Laser Youth Worlds 2012 Alaine Neilson /RQYS http://www.rqys.com.au/

Sailing from marina - Laser Youth Worlds 2012 © Alaine Neilson /RQYS http://www.rqys.com.au/

On the water postcard conditions prevailed with bright blue winter skies. The first race was sailed in a 9-14 knot southerly and it eased back 2-3 knots for the second race and went slightly west. Overall conditions were quite shifty with 15 degree shifts happening regularly.

Lawson Willard - Laser Youth Worlds 2012 © Alaine Neilson /RQYS http://www.rqys.com.au/

In the Laser Radials Boys competitors from 14 countries are placed in the top 20.

The two fleets, yellow and blue, will be re-split into Gold and Silver after eight races.

Overall in the under 19’s age group it is tight at the top. The Netherlands Rick Spelde is consistent, leading with 3,2 to be on five points followed closely by Dutch Antilles sailor Just Van Aanholt on six points. Benoit Lagneux from Switzerland is third on seven points followed by Australia’s Ben Walkemever on eight points.

In the under 17’s age group Switzerland’s Lagneux leads with his nearest rivals, Russia’s Maxim Nikolaev and New Zealand’s Cullen Le Roy, both tied on 14 points.

In the Laser Radials Girls there are nine countries represented in the top 20.

After two races the top three girls in the under 19’s age group are Maxime Jonker from the Netherlands, Australian Milly Bennett and Japanese sailor Hitomi Murayama. Jonker won the first race then scored an eighth place and is on nine points, followed by Bennett on 13 and Murayama on 14 points.

Emily Carstairs - Laser Youth Worlds 2012 © Alaine Neilson /RQYS http://www.rqys.com.au/

In the under 17’s age group USA’s Lindsey Baab is at the top with 22 points, three points ahead of British sailor Ellie Cumpsty. Australia’s Louise Evans in third on 29 points.

There were lots of smiles in the boat park after the completion of the day’s racing.

Lawson Willard from San Francisco didn’t sail yesterday in the blustery conditions, but was happy today. He said, ‘it was super flat out there. In San Francisco you get a fair amount of waves especially if you go up to the bridge so I’m used to that. Sailing here is really flat – it’s a lot different.’ Lawson sailed well and was fairly happy with his twelfth and ninth placings but is expecting to do better as the series progresses.

Emily Carstairs from Brisbane explained ‘There were some big shifts and some smaller shifts and if you tried to find them all you ended up in the middle of the pack, so it was just taking the chance, finding the wind wherever it was and keeping a clear way.’

Emily continued ‘All the Australians were pretty close together so it was good having the international sailors with us.’ Emily said the racing was tight. ‘It was pretty close racing – it was very up and down. One minute you could be near the top and the next minute you could be nearly dead last.’

Mahia Pepper - Laser Youth Worlds 2012 © Alaine Neilson /RQYS http://www.rqys.com.au/

About the conditions Emily said, ‘It was a bit different to yesterday. Yesterday was good fun – it would have been cool if it was like that again. I don’t think anyone went swimming today.’

Emily has been sailing for three years and this is her first world championship. After a 19th and 27th place Emily is 25th overall.

New Zealand is well represented at this regatta.

Mahia Pepper from Murrays Bay in Auckland is sailing well. He finished 19th in the first race, third in the second, and is 19th overall. Pepper is hoping his first race will be his overall series drop.

‘The competition was pretty good, quite hard, the starts were pretty intense.’

Mahia and his father Michael, have been camping on the grounds at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron. With saturated sleeping bags and pillows from the first day’s deluge, last night Mahia and his father were hoping their gear would have dried out ahead of today’s racing.

The scheduled start time for race 3 of the Laser Radial Youth World Championships on Saturday 30 June is 13:00.

Racing at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron continues until July 4.

Top twenty results - Girls:

Rigging lawn - Laser Youth Worlds 2012 © Alaine Neilson /RQYS http://www.rqys.com.au/

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