Three nations lead IFDS World Blind Sailing Champs after Day 1

by Sail-World on 16 Mar 2009
The first day of the IFDS World Blind Sailing Championships has seen some close racing on Lake Rotorua, with a first equal in the second race of the B1 category - the first time a dead heat has been seen by anyone involved in the event in more than 20 years.

After three races, Norway leads the B1 category, Japan (Team Flying Fish) leads the B2 category, and Great Britain leads the B3 category.

New Zealand remains in reach, holding second place in all three categories.

The dead heat involved Norway and Finland in the second race of the day.

Racing started at 10:20am on Sunday 15 March, 2009, with an easterly wind averaging 10 knots and gusting up to 12 knots. The wind direction moved to the East-Nor-East during the first race, and was a firm North-Easterly by the start of the second race. The middle of the second race saw a significant change to the east, impacting a number of teams who were caught out by the wind-shift.

Racing was particularly close across the board in the second race, with the start line very crowded at the Committee Boat end. A number of actual and near-collisions occurred on the start line and around the marks, with Japan and Australia undertaking alternative penalties in the B1 category.

The third race saw south-easterly winds gusting up to 18 knots, resulting in some thrilling racing. In the B1 category, Italy gained three or four places in the second round, eventually finishing third. In the B2 category, Canada was originally in third place around the first mark, however, an alternative penalty for hitting the mark saw them drop out of the top three, eventually finishing fourth.

In blind sailing each boat has a crew of four people - two blind and two sighted people. There are three classifications - B1 (totally blind), B2 (can see light and dark) and B3 (vision impaired eg. tunnel vision). The boat is skippered by a blind person and the sighted crew members essentially perform support roles such as the tactician role.

The eight B1 crews, six B2 crews and five B3 crews are racing Noelex 25s which are being provided by private owners. The yachts have been weighed to ensure they fit with the weight requirements and have been fitted with new sails to ensure a level contest for competitors.

Teams competing are from France, Norway, Finland, Italy, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Australia, United States of America and New Zealand.

Racing in the IFDS World Blind Sailing Championships will take place on Sunday 15 March, Monday 16 March, Wednesday 18 March, Thursday 19 March and the final day of racing on Saturday 21 March. Tuesday and Friday will be lay-days.

The IFDS World Blind Sailing Championships were officially opened yesterday by Rotorua Mayor Kevin Winters, in an uniquely-New Zealand ceremony that included two waka (traditional Maori canoe) paddling across Lake Rotorua with some of the championship officials on board. Members from Te Arawa officially welcomed the sailors to Rotorua for the event.

 

B1 Fleet
Sailed:3, Discards:0, To count:3, Entries:9, Scoring system:ISAF Series A
Rank	Fleet	Nat	VIP Helm	R1	R2	R3	Total	Nett
1st	B1	NOR	Thomas Johannesen	1	1.5	2	4.5	4.5
2nd	B1	NZL	Dick Lancaster	2	3	1	6	6
3rd	B1	FIN	Jukka Jokiniemi	3	1.5	6	10.5	10.5
4th	B1	AUS WA	Kylie Forth	5	6	4	15	15
5th	B1	ITA	Luigi Bertanza	9	5	3	17	17
6th	B1	JPN Team Toyota	Fumihiro Adachi	7	4	8	19	19
7th	B1	FRA	Olivier Brisse	4	9	7	20	20
8th	B1	GBR	Vicki Sheen	8	8	5	21	21
9th	B1	USA	Matt Chao	6	7	9	22	22
B2 Fleet
Sailed:3, Discards:0, To count:3, Entries:5, Scoring system:ISAF Series A
Rank	Fleet	Nat	VIP Helm	R1	R2	R3	Total	Nett
1st	B2	JPN Team Flying Fish	Takao Sugiyama	3	2	1	6	6
2nd	B2	NZL	Paulien Eitjes	2	3	2	7	7
3rd	B2	GBR	Lucy Hodges	1	4	3	8	8
4th	B2	CAN	David Brown	4	1	4	9	9
5th	B2	USA	Walter Raineri	5	5	5	15	15
B3 Fleet
Sailed:3, Discards:0, To count:3, Entries:5, Scoring system:ISAF Series A
Rank	Fleet	Nat	VIP Helm	R1	R2	R3	Total	Nett
1st	B3	GBR	Gary Kirby	1	2	1	4	4
2nd	B3	NZL	Dave Allerton	2	1	3	6	6
3rd	B3	USA	Jason Wallenstein	5	3	2	10	10
4th	B3	CAN	Randy Nelson	3	4	5	12	12
5th	B3	JPN Team Yuki	Yuki Kawazoe	4	5	4	13	13