505 CSC World Championships - Day 2
by Chris Thorne on 31 Jul 2006
505 Worlds 2006 fleet at Hayling Isalnd SC Gerald New
http://www.sail-world.co.uk
505 sailing does not get much better than this. Australian champions, Michael Quirk and Geoff Lange from Sydney, clearly felt at home, sailing brilliantly under blue skies and a brisk 20 knots plus breeze to take first place in the third heat of the CSC 505 World Championships.
Quirk and Lange took the lead during the first downwind leg, but not before class newcomers Toby Dale and James Cole of Great Britain had their best day’s work in the boat by leading the 112 strong fleet around the first mark after a testing opening beat of one and three-quarter miles.
However, they were passed on the frenetic downwind leg by not only the Australian boat but by a group of other boats including the early series leader, Mark Upton-Brown and Ian Mitchell (GBR) and the winners of the previous race, Ebbe Rosen and Olle Wenrup.
After the frenzied place changing on the downwind leg, the leading pack started to settle down on the next beat. Quirk and Lange held off the challenge of Upton-Brown and Mitchell, who in turn were comfortably ahead of Rosen and Wenrup.
With the wind now beginning to gust over 22 knots (Force 6), the reaching legs were always going to be a challenge, and the leading group all accelerated away from the windward mark in a coruscating display of spray and power over waves that were up to one and a half metres high. The first reach was set at a tighter angle than the second, and although Quirk and Lange were able to hold their spinnaker all the way to the gybe mark, Upton-Brown and Mitchell were forced to drop theirs to make the rounding.
At that stage it looked as though the Australians had established a decisive lead, but on the second reach they sailed too deep. Howard Hamlin and Jeff Nelson of the USA rounded the gybe mark in sixth place, but were first to spot a gust that enabled them to power through to third place by the leeward turn, closely behind Upton-Brown and Mitchell, who in turn were back hard on the heels of Quirk and Lange.
The next beat was the closest of the day with the top three all keeping a wary eye on each other. Hamlin and Nelson were able to outwit Upton-Brown and Mitchell early on by picking up a slight inside lift as the British duo footed off to try and put pressure on Quirk and Lange. At the top mark, only two boat lengths separated each of the first three boats; Australia, from America from Great Britain.
The Australians had obviously decided to keep things simple off wind and when Hamlin and then Upton-Brown called early gybes, they elected to carry on blasting towards the left hand corner of the course. With Hamlin being two times World 18 foot skiff champion and Upton-Brown also having considerable experience in International 14s, it was not surprising that these two boats decided to try breaking the Australian’s hold on the race by working the gybing angles down the long downwind leg.
However, Quirk and Lange proved that, on this occasion, simple was best. Their single gybe tactic resulted in an increased lead of about 150 metres, thus giving them a comfortable cushion going into the final leg.
Upton-Brown and Mitchell had just managed to squeeze back in front of Hamlin and Nelson at the leeward mark.
Once again, however, the Americans managed to edge through the British pair upwind and held onto this advantage to the finish, although third place was enough for Upton-Brown and Mitchell to hold onto their overall lead in the event.
Another British team, Ian Barker and Mark Darling, who had been steadily creeping up through the fleet managed to claim fifth place close behind Stefan Boehm and Gerald Roos of Germany.
Racing continues with two races Monday.
Leading positions after 3 races, 112 entries:
1st GBR 8908 Mark Upton Brown Ian Mitchell 2.0 4.0 3.0 9.0
2nd AUS 8886 Michael Quirk Geoff Lange 4.0 7.0 1.0 12.0
3rd USA 8266 Howie Hamlin Jeff Nelson 10.0 5.0 2.0 17.0
4th GER 8903 Boris Herrmann Julien Kleiner 8.0 2.0 7.0 17.0
5th GER 8875 Jens Findel Johannes Tellen 5.0 6.0 8.0 19.0
6th DEN 8620 Jan Saugman Morten Ramsbaek 7.0 3.0 12.0 22.0
7th GBR 8882 Ian Pinnell Steve Hunt 6.0 9.0 11.0 26.0
8th GBR 8743 Ian Barker Mark Darling 14.0 13.0 5.0 32.0
9th USA 8554 Douglas Hagan Robert Woelfel 25.0 8.0 6.0 39.0
10th USA 8822 Mike Holt Carl Smit 27.0 19.0 9.0 55.0
11th GER 8915 Hasso Plattner Peter Alarie 13.0 17.0 25.0 55.0
12th FRA 8771 Philippe Boite Fabrice Toupet 19.0 30.0 10.0 59.0
13th AUS 8921 Nigel Lott Bob Franks 30.0 12.0 19.0 61.0
14th GER 8580 Nicki Daisenberg Andreas Achterberg 24.0 21.0 22.0 67.0
15th USA 8660 Ben Moon Nick Nelson 17.0 25.0 27.0 69.0
16th GBR 8835 Charlie Walters Dougal Cram 26.0 22.0 21.0 69.0
17th GER 8862 Stefan Bohm Gerald Roos 45.0 29.0 4.0 78.0
18th SUI 8569 Rene Betschen Patrick Ducommun 35.0 11.0 32.0 78.0
19th GBR 8910 Debbie Darling Paul Young 20.0 23.0 35.0 78.0
20th USA 8831 Pierre Jeangirard Paul Von Grey 32.0 20.0 29.0 81.0
21st FIN 8768 Pentti Matti Otto Toivanen 40.0 28.0 15.0 83.0
22nd USA 8722 Macy Nelson Dustin Romey 33.0 16.0 39.0 88.0
23rd GER 8843 Jens Hufnagel Lars Dehne 38.0 40.0 13.0 91.0
24th GBR 8836 Robin Brown Neil Fulcher 58.0 18.0 17.0 93.0
25th GER 8466 Niediek Volker Stefan Heising 43.0 26.0 26.0 95.0
26th USA 8631 Parker Shinn Garreth Williams 11.0 43.0 47.0 101.0
27th DEN 8826 Tom Bojland Helge Rasmussen 42.0 24.0 37.0 103.0
28th GBR 8773 Andrew Smith Norman Byrd 31.0 39.0 33.0 103.0
29th GER 8901 Sophie Soellner Wolfgang Stuckl 16.0 65.0 28.0 109.0
30th SWE 8912 Magnus Nilsson Andreas Carlsson 15.0 50.0 53.0 118.0
Full results at venue website - http://www.hisc.co.uk
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