Blackburn wins 2006 Laser World’s

by Rob Kothe on 21 Sep 2006 In a day of high drama, the early start of 0900 was postponed due to lack of wind with the fleet held on shore until the forecast easterly wind finally arrived at 1400. The 12 to 17 knot took an hour to settle after two attempted starts and one postponement the gold fleet final got away under a black flag at 1530 just 30 minutes before the cut off time for starting.

With just one race, Blackburn was in the controlling position with a fourth place as his drop whilst Slingsby was disadvantaged with his 20th.

Blackburn only needed to be in front of Slingsby or have Slingsby finish worse than nineth.

On each of the aborted starts and on the eventual successful start, Blackburn chased Slingsby in the pre-start area. He only needed to ensure Slingsby was buried to win the title.

On the final start Slingsby started to leeward of Blackburn with another boat sandwiched between them. Within a few minutes of the start Slingsby had driven out from underneath Blackburn and Blackburn tacked away.

When they next crossed Slingsby had the advantage but both were well buried in the fleet.

At the first mark Slingsby rounded 28th with Blackburn 56th. Slingsby recovered to 17th and Blackburn finished 36th but the championship had been sealed just after the start.

The Swede, Rasmus Myrgen led the fleet home from New Zealander Michael Bullot and a Croatian sailor Luka Radelic.

The top five places and points 1. Blackburn Australia 16 points 2. Slingsby Australia 24 points 3. Myrgen Sweden 33 points 4. Leigh Canada 39 points 5. Lima Portugal 41 points

35 year old Blackburn has a Phd in Human Movement. He started campaigning in the Laser class in 1994 and has sailed at three Olympics Atlanta, Sydney Athens. Of those his best result was his bronze medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Last year Blackburn amazed the world by sailing across the very dangerous Bass Strait in a Laser.

Dockside, Blackburn commented 'I can't quite believe it. I kind of got used to finishing big regattas anywhere other than 1st. But now, after some 16 years sailing a Laser and 12 years competing internationally, I've finally won the Worlds. Wow!'

His training partner Tom Slingsby, was naturally disappointed, but its a great result for the young sailor, who plainly will be on the world scene for many years to come.

Slingsby started with four bullets in his fleet racing, but the big wind shift on the start of the sixth race in the series cost him the title. Caught at the pin, he rounded the top mark in 40th place and though he fought back to 20th in that race, he was always going to have trouble defending his series lead.

Blackburn explained what happened on the course. 'I matched raced Tom a little before the start(s) but he slipped in front of me. He needed to finish nineth or better. I followed him up the beat to see him round the top about 28th. By the next top mark he was about 22nd and got up to 15th at the finish, not quite enough.

'So I won! Tom second. Australia 1-2, we think the first time ever.'

Provisional Results

Results Laser - Gold

 
Scores take into account 1  discard