29er World Championship - Challenging day in Aarhus

by Jerelyn Biehl on 31 Jul 2013 At the 29er World Championship, it was a challenging day for competitors and race committee alike on Kaløvig Bay! A morning race was held in eight knots for all courses with the Race Committee holding a watchful eye on the radar with an approaching thunderstorm. The impending storm cell hovered south of Aarhus before bringing wind and rain at the finish of the race, sweeping across the edge of Kaløvig Bay.

Thomas Jorgensen, IRO commented 'We have had a long day for the four Race Management teams on the water. We started at the scheduled time at 12:00 but we had heavy rain with thunder at the finish and displayed AP on all courses and waited for better conditions. But another cell was behind it and we made the decision to send all fleets ashore for safety reasons. After two hours on shore, the wind arrived again from the southwest and we had 12 knots with two fine races to complete the qualifying series.'

With the fleet now split into gold, silver, bronze and emerald fleets, the final push is on to determine the 29er World Champion. Leaders in the gold fleet are Lucas Rual and Emile Amoros (FRA) who remain in the lead. Charlie Wyatt and Tom Siganto (AUS) had a stellar day moving back to second and American brother duo Quinn and Dane Wilson sit third overall. Ragna and Maia Agerup of Norway continue to be the top female team and are 17th overall.

Aarhus Sailing and Kaløvig Sailing Club are host to the event and have enlisted the many parents as volunteers to help with the launch and retrieval and trolly sorting as well as distributing the daily after race snack to all competitors.

Twenty-five nations are representing all continents with 213 entries in this highly competitive fleet.

The finals begin on Wednesday, July 31 followed by two more days of the final series. The prizegiving will be held on Friday, August 2.

29er Worlds