Tom Slingsby wins Laser World Championship

by Sail-World.com on 13 Feb 2008
Try as he could Principal Race Officer Tony Denham was unable to get either of the last two races in today. Early morning winds were gusting beyond 30 knots, but mid morning the winds began to abate giving promise of a final day's competition. Race officials went to sea and then signalled racing would commence around 3.00pm.

Sailors made their way to the boat park and started to asssemble their Lasers but within 15 mins the racing abandoned echoed through boat park.

Tony Denham said 'that the wave heights had continued to grow to such an extent that it would have been unsafe to send the Gold and Silver fleets onto the race course. Earlier the wind had eased but we had 25+ knots and most significantly breaking waves out on the race course. Racing would have raised major safety issues.

As he packed up his Laser Tom Slingsby said 'It would have been better to win on the water today.'

The defending World Champion however knew that yesterday's racing would be very important, giving it his all and achieving first place in both races sailed. An indeed Tom's assessment proved corrected.

Sail-World has interviews and pictures to follow.