Eventful racing on Lake Rotorua for Day 2 of World Blind Sailing Champ

by Jacky James on 18 Mar 2009
Despite a forecast of no wind, the second day of racing got underway on Lake Rotorua in the IFDS World Blind Sailing Championships with a solid nor-nor-easterly wind that blew between 10 and 17 knots across the day.

New Zealander Paulien Eitjes dominated today's racing in the B2 classification, leading at every mark in every race.

Today's results give Paulien's team a total of eight points (provisional results, and after dropping their worst result) - a good lead of seven points over Canada. Great Britain and Japan’s Flying Fish team are coming third equal in the B2 fleet, followed by USA in fifth place.

The real competition in this fleet now comes for second and third places, with Canada, Japan and Great Britain just one point apart.

The competition in the B1 category is extremely tight. Norway continues to lead the B1 fleet on 11.5 points, followed by Italy on 13 points and New Zealand, led by Dick Lancaster, on 15 points.

In the B3 category, Great Britain is on six points, a significant lead over New Zealand on 14 points and the USA on 17 points.

The fresher winds saw more exciting and eventful racing today, with one member of the USA team falling off the boat during a manoeuvre to avoid a collision, in 17 knots of wind. The rest of the team managed to hang onto the sailor, pulling him back on board and recovering enough to lead the first half of the next race.

'It's been perfect sailing conditions today,' says organising committee chairman, Don McGowan.

'We were a bit worried this morning because a good breeze wasn't forecast, however, we've ended up with consistent wind all day, which has meant we have been able to make up for having to abandon racing yesterday due to no wind.'

The IFDS World Blind Sailing Championships will now have a lay day tomorrow (Wednesday) and Friday, with racing at this stage on Thursday and Saturday, depending on wind conditions.

 

B1 Fleet
Sailed:7, Discards:1, To count:6, Entries:9, Scoring system:ISAF Series A
Rank	Fleet	Nat	VIP Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Total	Nett
1st	B1	NOR	Thomas Johannesen	1	1.5	2	2	2	3	-5	16.5	11.5
2nd	B1	ITA	Luigi Bertanza	-9	4	3	1	1	2	2	22	13
3rd	B1	NZL	Dick Lancaster	2	(10.0 DSQ)	1	4	4	1	3	25	15
4th	B1	FIN	Jukka Jokiniemi	3	1.5	6	6	5	-7	1	29.5	22.5
5th	B1	AUS WA	Kylie Forth	5	5	4	5	-6	6	4	35	29
6th	B1	FRA	Olivier Brisse	4	-8	7	7	3	5	6	40	32
7th	B1	USA	Matt Chao	6	6	-9	3	7	4	9	44	35
8th	B1	JPN Team Toyota	Fumihiro Adachi	7	3	8	8	-9	9	8	52	43
9th	B1	GBR	Vicki Sheen	8	7	5	-9	8	8	7	52	43
B2 Fleet
Sailed:7, Discards:1, To count:6, Entries:5, Scoring system:ISAF Series A
Rank	Fleet	Nat	VIP Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Total	Nett
1st	B2	NZL	Paulien Eitjes	2	-3	2	1	1	1	1	11	8
2nd	B2	CAN	David Brown	-4	1	4	4	2	2	2	19	15
3rd	B2	JPN Team Flying Fish	Takao Sugiyama	3	2	1	3	-4	3	4	20	16
3rd	B2	GBR	Lucy Hodges	1	-4	3	2	3	4	3	20	16
5th	B2	USA	Walter Raineri	-5	5	5	5	5	5	5	35	30
B3 Fleet
Sailed:7, Discards:1, To count:6, Entries:5, Scoring system:ISAF Series A
Rank	Fleet	Nat	VIP Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Total	Nett
1st	B3	GBR	Gary Kirby	1	-2	1	1	1	1	1	8	6
2nd	B3	NZL	Dave Allerton	2	1	3	-5	3	3	2	19	14
3rd	B3	USA	Jason Wallenstein	-5	3	2	3	4	2	3	22	17
4th	B3	CAN	Randy Nelson	3	4	-5	2	2	5	4	25	20
5th	B3	JPN Team Yuki	Yuki Kawazoe	4	-5	4	4	5	4	5	31	26