Dan Slater previews Form Guide for the 2015 Laser Worlds in Kingston

by Dan Slater, The Water Shed on 2 Jul 2015 Dan Slater, of The Water Shed, is coaching at the 2015 Laser Worlds. He files this report ahead of the start of the regatta:

The 2015 Laser Worlds Start tomorrow In Kingston Canada. This venue has had a proud history of major events and was built as the Sailing venue for the Montreal Olympics in 1976. Since then has hosted the annual CORK Week Olympic and Youth class regatta which is one of the largest in North America.

The Open STD rig Worlds is the first of three Laser Worlds held here in the next Month. The Laser Masters will follow and then the Laser Youth Worlds to finish off.

They have supplied Lasers that every sailor must charter but are all in the same gear so to speak. A few issues with spars bending and this has caused a few problems with keeping the boats even with spars all from the same batch and similar bend characteristics.

The new boats have been available for a week now and nearly 100 of the competitors have been in Kingston training . For the first time in a long time we have seen some massive line ups with up to 50-60 boats all training together and then racing with similar fleet sizes all run by the coaches.

This years Laser Worlds has lots riding on it for the majority of the sailors. It is a Nation Olympic Qualifier for all those Nations who didn’t qualify their country for the Rio Olympics in the 2014 ISAF Worlds. Its also the beginning, or part of the Olympic Trials for lots of Nations with some of the front runners in the Laser World. The Dutch, New Zealand, Australia, UK, Croatia and Brasil are all using the Worlds as part of their different Olympic selection policies.

So who are the favorites from the 63 Nations and 140+ competitors?

- Tom Burton Australia Former World Champion
- Matthew Wearn Australia Only 19 but medaled in last two Events.
- Robert Scheidt Brazil No intro required 9X World Champion
- Tonci Stipanovic Croatia 2x European Champion
- Nick Thompson Great Britain Medalist at Last years Worlds.
- Philipp Buhl Germany Won the last three regattas he has sailed.
- Nicholas Heiner Nedtherlands Current World Champion
- Rutger Van Schaardenburg Nedtherlands Medalist in numerous World cups and Europeans
- Sam Meech New Zealand A new Kiwi program this year trying to peak later in the year we might see some of the form we normally see from them in Palma and Hyeres.
- Andy Maloney New Zealand Also part of the new Kiwi program this year trying to peak later in the year so we might see some of the form we normally see from them in Palma and Hyeres.
-Charlie Buckingham USA On the rise and one to watch for Rio. Unfortunately Charlie also has to deal with the Loss of US 49er team mate Trevor Moore so its not going to be a easy week for him.
-Jean-Baptiste Bernaz France One of the consistent performers in the class always in the mix at the end of the regatta.

The sailors will be split into 3 fleets based on World rankings and sail 6 qualifying races with 1 discard over 3 days . The results will then determine a Gold, Silver and Bronze fleet before a further 8 races will be sailed over another 4 days with just 1 more discard.

So in total 14 races will be sailed with 2 discards over 7 days.

Today is Canada Day so it’s a Public Holiday and most sailors will also have a day off the water before sailing 7 days straight. As the Lasers are supplied you cannot sand or polish them they can only be washed with water. The sailors will in most cases today do some exercise to keep the muscles turned on and then do some sight seeing , Watch a movie or some have taken on fishing here in the river as there are some good fighting fish.