It was busy at the breakfast table this morning, at the 2011 Optimist Worlds in Napier, with sailors keen to get back onto the water after a day of sight seeing on the Lay Day. Like most Lay Days, it was brilliant sailing weather.
Sailors went onto the water at the scheduled time to start the first race at 1025, but with winds between 1 and 4 knots, there was not much sailing.
'We made the call to send the sailors back to shore at 1245' according to Gerald Martin, Principle Race Officer. 'No racing had been done, and it didn't look like anything was going to happen any time soon as there was hardly any wind' Mr Martin continues.
Sailors were called back onto the water by 1310, but it wasn't until 1535 before the first race of the day started. The leader board changed after the seventh race: Ryan Lo who held the first position was disqualified from race 7 and dropped to place 7. Bart Lambriex from the Netherlands who finished second in race 7 took over the leadership position.
Wind increased to 8 knots by the time the eight race started, and the race committee managed to do all three fleets. It was a long day for the sailors with many headed back to shore just before 1900.
Bart Lambriex finished 15th in the eight and last race but managed to keep his prime position om the overall scores, followed by Ahmad Syukri Abdul Aziz from Malaysia with Javier Arribas solid in place three. The first female sailor is Kimberly Lim from Singapore on place four.
Whether there will be any sailing tomorrow depends entirely on the weather. The weather prediction at 2200 are very strong winds: up to 31 knots, heavy rain: 13.9 mm/hr and very high swells. We expect the Race Committee to make a call first thing tomorrow morning.
Opti Worlds Vital Stats: 30 December 2011 - 10 January 2012
The boat: a safe and simple dinghy that is one of the world's most popular designs The racing: 9 days of Championship racing The competitors: 210 sailors aged between 11 and 15 years The countries: teams from 48 nations including reigning Champs Thailand The host club: Napier Sailing Club, Napier, New Zealand Famous sailors that have started out in Optis include: Ben Ainslie The big sponsors: Vodafone, New Zealand Major Events, Hawke's Bay Tourism, SPARC, City of Napier, Air New Zealand, the Radio Network, EuroCity Napier, Victoria Cruising Club, Lion Foundation The technology: GPS tracking and live video coverage online - real time The website: www.optiworldsnz.org.nz, over 8,000 unique visitors per day The Facebook page: 1,399 likes http://www.facebook.com/optiworldsnz2011
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