CSC 505 World Championship

by Chris Thorne on 3 Aug 2006 With the strong winds that had caused racing at the CSC 505 World Championship to be postponed the previous day abating, the fourth days racing of the series was able to start on time. Despite wins for Hamlin and Nelson (USA) and Barker and Darling (GBR) today, overall Upton-Brown and Mitchell lead by one point from Hamlin and Nelson, with Australians Michael Quirk and Geoff Lange in third place.

For race four the beat into the force 4 westerly was against the tide, and the received wisdom was that the right hand, inshore, side of the track should pay. However, not for the first time, Hayling Bay sprung a surprise with the early starters who went left being the first to show at the windward mark.

First round were the winners of Race 2, Ebbe Rosen and Olle Wenrup of Sweden, sailing with a new mast to replace the one broken in Race 3. Australian pair, Michael Babbage and James Mcallister, were newcomers to the leader board when they slipped round in second place. Then came the American challenge with Howard Hamlin and Jeff Nelson being chased for the bronze medal position by Doug Hagan and Robert Woelfel.

The 505 Class changed its traditional course configuration a few years ago so that championship races now have two windward leeward legs and only one triangular lap around the gybe mark. The fact that this configuration keeps the race open for longer was proved on the next downwind leg when the puffs down the course created distinct overtaking lanes for those aware enough to exploit them.

There was much shuffling of the leading pack on this leg. By the bottom mark, Hamlin and Nelson had taken the lead from Rosen and Wenrup, and both the American pair of Tyler Moore and Jesse Falsone and series leader, Mark Upton-Brown and Ian Mitchell had made purposeful gains.

On the next beat the race began to settle down. Hamlin and Nelson were showing good speed and by the start of the next lap had stretched their advantage over the Swedes. A closer tussle was going on between the next four boats, with Hagan and Woelfel, Moore and Falsone and Upton-Brown and Mitchell being joined by heavy air specialists, Stefan Boehm and Gerald Roos of Germany.

In view of the loss of racing the previous day, the Race Committee was keen to make sure two races were sailed today and therefore had set the upwind leg at only one nautical mile. In the freshening breeze this meant that Hamlin and Nelson took the chequered flag barely an hour after the start,

Top six Race 4:
1: Howard Hamlin, Jeff Nelson, USA 8266
2: Ebbe Rosen, Olle Wenrup, SWE 8232
3 Tyler Moore, Jesse Falsone, USA 8883
4 Doug Hagan, Robert Woelfel, USA 8554
5: Stefan Boehm, Gerald Roos, GER 8862
6: Mark Upton-Brown, Ian Mitchell, GBR 8908

By the start of Race 5 the fleet of over a hundred 505’s was being tested by a breeze that was gusting between 18 and 24 knots. In similar conditions to those during their victory in the epic Race 3, Australians Mike Quirk and Geoff Lange played pathfinder. This should have been in their favour as the right hand side of the beat was now clearly paying most of the time.

However, this race was to be dominated by two British crews, Ian Barker and Mark Darling and the ever present Mark Upton-Brown and Ian Mitchell. These two rounded the first mark in that order. To emphasise that this was a good day for the host nation, they were closely followed by Debbie Darling and Paul Young. As for the Americans that had showed so strongly in the previous race, none were in the top ten.

On the first downwind leg, Upton-Brown and Mitchell found more pressure by gybing inside Barker and Darling and by the bottom mark had nudged into the lead. These two crews were giving a master class in heavy air sailing and by the end of the next beat they were still within a few boat lengths of each other, with a gap of over a minute back to the third placed boat of Ebbe Rosen and Olle Wenrup who have been consistent faces near the front during this series.

The two British boats stormed away down the two reaching legs and although the gusting wind was proving a test too far for some less experienced crews, they both executed the spinnaker hoist, gybe and drop immaculately so that Barker and Darling were still looming large in Upton Brown’s mirrors as they rounded the bottom mark.

The decisive moment came when Upton-Brown’s tiller extension got caught when tacking near the start of the next beat. This momentary delay to their progress was all that was needed to give Barker and Darling the chance they needed to sweep into the lead. From then on they used what appeared to be a marginally better upwind speed to stretch away from their rivals. In the meantime the Danish team of Jan Saugmann and Morten Ramsbaek had muscled their way past Rosen and Wenrup to the front of the rest of the fleet.

Baring mistakes or gear failure the first two positions were secure by the start of the final lap. Barker and Darling eventually had a two minute advantage over Upton-Brown and Mitchell, who had a similar cushion between them and the third place boat. However, further back the race was still very much alive. Indeed the final long upwind leg of this race could prove on of the key moments of the whole championships.

After having spent most of the race out of the top ten, Howard Hamlin and Jeff Nelson played a blinding last lap, first moving into seventh place on the run and then picking the shifts correctly to pull up to fourth place by the finish.

This late charge by Hamlin and Nelson means that they can discard the tenth place from Race 1, which puts them only one point behind Upton-Brown and Mitchell in the overall standings, and five points clear of Quirk and Lange. With three races still scheduled much excitement is anticipated over the next couple of days.

Top six Race 5:
1: Ian Barker , Mark Darling, GBR 8743
2: Mark Upton-Brown, Ian Mitchell, GBR 8908
3: Jan Saugaman, Morton Ramsbaek, DEN 8620
4: Howard Hamlin, Jeff Nelson, USA 8266
5: Michael Quirk and Geoff Lange, AUS 8886
6: Tyler Moore, Jesse Falsone, USA 8883

Overall leading positions after 5 races, 1 discard:

1st GBR 8908 Mark Upton Brown Ian Mitchell 2.0 4.0 3.0 (6.0) 2.0 11.0pts
2nd USA 8266 Howie Hamlin Jeff Nelson (10.0) 5.0 2.0 1.0 4.0 12.0
3rd AUS 8886 Michael Quirk Geoff Lange 4.0 7.0 1.0 (10.0) 5.0 17.0
4th SWE 8232 Ebbe Rosen Olle Wenrup 12.0 1.0 (114.0 DNF) 2.0 7.0 22.0
5th DEN 8620 Jan Saugman Morten Ramsbaek 7.0 3.0 12.0 (16.0) 3.0 25.0
6th USA 8883 Tyler Moore Jesse Falsone 1.0 (114.0 DNF) 16.0 3.0 6.0 26.0
7th GER 8875 Jens Findel Johannes Tellen 5.0 6.0 8.0 8.0 (11.0) 27.0
8th GER 8903 Boris Herrmann Julien Kleiner 8.0 2.0 7.0 (15.0) 12.0 29.0
9th GBR 8882 Ian Pinnell Steve Hunt 6.0 9.0 (11.0) 7.0 10.0 32.0
10th GBR 8743 Ian Barker Mark Darling 14.0 13.0 5.0 (20.0) 1.0 33.0
11th USA 8554 Douglas Hagan Robert Woelfel 25.0 8.0 6.0 4.0 (114.0 DNF) 43.0
12th GER 8862 Stefan Bohm Gerald Roos (45.0) 29.0 4.0 5.0 9.0 47.0
13th USA 8822 Mike Holt Carl Smit (27.0) 19.0 9.0 9.0 15.0 52.0
14th GER 8744 Christian Kellner Heini Rix 9.0 14.0 (114.0 DNF) 14.0 16.0 53.0
15th FRA 8771 Philippe Boite Fabrice Toupet 19.0 (30.0) 10.0 12.0 19.0 60.0
16th GER 8915 Hasso Plattner Peter Alarie 13.0 17.0 (25.0) 18.0 13.0 61.0
17th GBR 8836 Robin Brown Neil Fulcher (58.0) 18.0 17.0 11.0 21.0 67.0
18th GBR 8910 Debbie Darling Paul Young 20.0 23.0 (35.0) 23.0 8.0 74.0
19th GBR 8835 Charlie Walters Dougal Cram (26.0) 22.0 21.0 26.0 17.0 86.0
20th SUI 8543 Cedric Bart Ueli Marti 18.0 15.0 (114.0 DNF) 30.0 30.0 93.0
21st USA 8660 Ben Moon Nick Nelson 17.0 25.0 27.0 24.0 (114.0 DNF) 93.0
22nd GER 8843 Jens Hufnagel Lars Dehne 38.0 (40.0) 13.0 27.0 20.0 98.0
23rd AUS