Landcorp 2011 Mirror Worlds - Gear used by the top ten

by Grant Atherton on 18 Jan 2011

2011 Mirror World Champs Ross Kearney & Max Odell show the determination that helped them secure the title - and yes they did save this one! - Landcorp 2011 Mirror Worlds Rob Cruse

Landcorp 2011 Mirror Worlds - With five different nations filling the top five positions in the Landcorp 2011 Mirror Worlds, it is interesting to see what different gear preferences exist. Naturally the biggest determinant of success is the human factor, but for those wishing to emulate their heroes, here is a potted summary of the top ten finishes.

Rank	Sail No.	Nation	Hull	Foils	Spars	Main	Jib	Kite	Crew	Pole Launcher
									Weight(kg)	(Y/N)
1	70624	IRL	Winder	Winder	Superspars	P&B	P&B	P&B	108	Y
2	70596	PHI Sports	Dinghy	Freddy	Goldspar	Hill	Hill	North	139	N
3	70574	GBR	Winder	Custom	Custom	Advantage	Adv.	Adv.	100	Y
4	70411	RSA	Timber	RSA Builder	Superspars	P&B	P&B	P&B	100	N
5	70664	AUS Sports	Dinghy	Freddy	Goldspar	Olympic	Olym.	Olym.	115	Y
6	70546	AUS	Winder	Freddy	Goldspar	Olympic	Hill	North	115	Y
7	69196	AUS	Timber	Custom	Goldspar	Walker	Walk.	Walk.	108	N
8	70662	AUS Sports	Dinghy	Freddy	Goldspar	Walker	Walk.	Walk.	98	Y
9	69360	AUS	Timber	Botterill	Goldspar	Walker	Walk.	Walk.	100	Y
10	70534	GBR	Winder	Winder	Superspars	Lulham - Robinson	L-R	L-R	100	N

Ross Kearney took the World title for the second time, previously winning in Sweden in 2005, the first sailor to have won the World title twice. Ross is a sailmaker with P&B (Pinnell & Bax), so naturally used P&B sails. Although fairly new, his boat, spars, foils etc. were all comparable to what the other Winder boats were using. The Philippines’ crew (who are trying to qualify the Philippines for the Olympics in the 470 class) were at the upper end of the weight range for the top ten, but were always competitive, even when the breezes moderated (which they didn’t do too often over the 27 races of the combined Australian Championships and subsequent World Championships sailed at Princess Royal Sailing club at Albany WA). They used a chartered boat and probably had little if any input into the choice of gear. The top GBR boat led the Worlds early in the regatta and proved very quick in the heavy breezes despite their relatively light weight.

Interestingly three timber boats made it into the top 10, with some of the GRP boats suffering minor damage in the heavy conditions. The 10th boat was the Junior World Champions and used sails from their mother and fathers sailmaking firm to good effect. Paul Taylor’s boat used the most diverse range of sails, with Paul winning the Australian Championships and Pre-Worlds Regatta with some excellent heavy wind sailing prior to the Worlds Regatta.
So there is no clear list of must have equipment, it was more a matter of keeping the gear together (the series saw several broken masts and booms and more than a few spinnaker poles ended up with permanent bends, and numerous spinnakers were replaced including Ross Kearney replacing one during the Australian Champions / Pre-Worlds Regatta).

For full results and an excellent blog which summarises each race see the event website which also includes a photo gallery. Another excellent photo gallery is provided by Rob Cruse here

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