Day 2 of International Canoe Worlds abandoned

by Christian Knott on 3 Jan 2008 Day two of the International Canoe Worlds being held at the McCrae Yacht Club, was abandoned due to winds of 30 plus knots ripping through the water off McCrae.

Further to the earlier race report posted, Christian Knott has posted the following update with more detail.

DAY 1

Sparkling conditions greeted the 39 competitors in the International 10Sq. Metre Canoe World Championship held at the McCrae Yacht Club on Port Phillip Bay. Warm sunshine and 10-15kts of SW breeze provided the perfect opener around a large triangular Olympic course.

The fleet was divided into three divisions; first away were the ICs followed 5mins later by the Development Canoes and then the Asymmetric Spinnaker Canoes, who shared the start and finish lines but who sailed a windward/leeward course. Undoubted star of heats 1 and 2 was Chris Maas in USA242 - a beautifully built and finished radical DC design. Maas sailed through the entire IC fleet to record two clear bullets.

In the IC class Bill Beaver USA219 just managed to cross ahead of Tim Wilson AUS16 to take the gun; Hayden Virtue AUS20 following these two. Steve Clark USA239 could make no impression on Maas in the DCs chasing him home nearly five minutes later, with Oliver Moore US240 in third. John Robson GBR283 led Tobias Kunz GER73 after a close fight all the way round.

The course was swung by 10 degrees for the second heat but in a rising wind the competitors found it hard to identify the immaculately laid windward mark against the background of the beach. As a result the majority of the IC fleet overstood the mark by a substantial amount and in turn misled the DCs and ACs. Once they had realized their mistake the fleet reached down in a spectacular stampede led by Virtue.

In a nailbiting finish, on a course shortened due to increasing wind, he scraped home just ahead of Beaver with Seth Dunbar AUS14 relinquishing his slender lead in a final fluffed tack for the line to come in third.

Clark put Maas under a little more pressure chasing him home two minutes later with Alistair Warren GBR308 taking third place.

The ACs race was more of a lottery after they had a desperate hunt for the windward mark. Once the mark had been identified, Robson scored another win from McLaren GBR280 and Kunz in third.

International Canoe - positions after 2 races
Pos Country Sail No Helm R1 R2 Nett
1 USA 219 Bill Beaver 1 2 3 pts
2 AUS 20 Hayden Virtue 3 1 4 pts
3 AUS 16 Tim Wilson 2 5 7 pts
4 AUS 14 Seth Dunbar 6 3 9 pts
5 SWE 101 Johan Elfström 5 4 9 pts
6 GBR 299 Colin Brown 4 6 10 pts
7 AUS 18 Christian Knott 9 9 18 pts
8 GER 74 Eckhardt Pagel 12 7 19 pts
9 GBR 295 Colin Newman 8 13 21 pts
10 GER 56 Peter Ullmann 10 11 21 pts
11 AUS 8 Alex Kalin 14 10 24 pts
12 POL 1 Mikey Radziejowski 13 12 25 pts
13 USA 220 George Saunders 7 24F 31 pts
14 GER 68 Roger Regitz 24F 8 32 pts
15 GBR 233 Mike Shreeve 11 24F 35 pts
16 GBR 256 Felicity Robson 24F 14 38 pts
17 USA 202 Christopher Moore 15 24F 39 pts
18 AUS 7 Jim Reeder 16 24F 40 pts
19 USA 230 Samel Moore 17 24F 41 pts
20 AUS 12 Frank Raisin 18 24F 42 pts
21 GBR 312 Simon Allen 24S 24C 48 pts
21 AUS 9 Kevin Knott 24F 24C 48 pts
21 AUS 13 Kyle Knott 24C 24C 48 pts

Asymmetric Canoe - positions after 2 races
Pos Country Sail No Helm R1 R2 Nett
1 GBR 283 John Robson 1 1 2 pts
2 GBR 280 Peter McLaren 3 2 5 pts
2 GER 73 Tobias Kunz 2 3 5 pts

Development Canoe - positions after 2 races
Pos Country Sail No Helm R1 R2 Nett
1 USA 242 Chris Maas 1 1 2 pts
2 USA 239 Steve Clark 2 2 4 pts
3 GBR 308 Alistair Warren 6 3 9 pts
4 USA 92 David Clark 8 5 13 pts
5 USA 241 Willy Clark 7 6 13 pts
6 USA 243 Des Olsen 10 4 14 pts
7 USA 240 Oliver Moore 3 14F 17 pts
8 AUS 21 Phil Stevenson 4 14F 18 pts
9 GBR 311 Phil Robin 5 14F 19 pts
10 USA 244 John Kells 9 14F 23 pts
11 AUS 216 Jonathan Emonson 11 14F 25 pts
12 AUS 25 Geoff Harman 12 14F 26 pts
13 CAN 235 Rob Paterson 14F 14F 28 pts