Mark Orams wins Masters Laser Radial Worlds
by Jodie Bakewell-White on 27 Feb 2008
2008 World Champion Mark Orams reaching to victory SW
Torbay Sailing Club’s Mark Orams won his third world master’s sailing championship at the Laser Master’s Worlds sailed at Terrigal Bay, New South Wales Australia. The regatta concluded on Saturday.
Competing in the Laser Radial class, he won the title by winning the last race against arch rival and four times world champion Stephen Cockerill from Great Britain.
The Laser Radial master’s division was one of the most competitive at the regatta with two current and three former world champions in the fleet.
“It was a really tough regatta mentally” said Orams. “We had huge seas, up to four metres at times, and relatively light shifty winds. You really had to keep your head together as it was so easy to get out of phase and drop places.”
Orams, a long time Torbay resident, trains out of Waiake Beach and has won two previous world Laser Radial Masters titles in 1999 and 2005.
Other stand-out New Zealanders at the Laser Masters World Championships included Rohan Lord who finished second in the Apprentice Master Laser Standard division. Gill Waiting from Napier also sailed well all regatta finishing first female in the Laser Radial Grand Master fleet and 23rd overall in a fleet of 33. And Tom Speed was 3rd in the Great Grand Master division.
Full results and reports are available on the regatta website through the link below.
Background
Masters sailing in the Laser and Laser Radial is HUGE. Last week 335 sailors from around the world, aged 35 years and over were in Terrigal, NSW for the 2008 Laser Masters World Championships. New Zealand had a total of 44 representatives including 42 men and two women.
The divisions are…
Apprentice Master (35+ years)
Master (45+ years)
Grand Masters (55+ years)
Great Grand Masters (65+ years)
Up until graduating to become a Great Grand Master, sailors can sail in either the Laser Standard rig or Laser Radial rig, while those over 65 years are all required to compete with the Radial rig.
The biggest fleet in Terrigal was the Masters Laser Standard with 90 entries, followed by 54 Grand Masters sailing the in Standard rig.
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