Cockerill goes Top at Laser Masters Worlds

by Event media / Sail-world.com/uk on 20 Feb 2008
Day 3 of the Laser Masters Worlds in Australia tested the minds rather then the legs of the competitors as a light and shifty breeze delayed racing. Once race officials were finally able to get the racing underway the difficult conditions meant that fleets became mixed and caused recording difficulties for the finishers after a long day on the water, competitors were still coming ashore after 6pm.

Steve Cockerill in the Radial Masters event sailed through the rain squalls and shifts to record his first win in the series, despite a 720 penalty, and take the overall lead tied on points with Australian Greg Adams. In third place is Mark Orams of New Zealand and on equal points in fourth, Chris Raab of the USA.

Cockerill was not happy after he was forced to do a 720 degree penalty, through he says, no fault of his own. 'Some people don't follow the rule of keeping clear, and that's what happened to me. I am not happy about it,' he said. 'It dropped me to third or fourth, but by the leeward mark I was back to second, then dropped to third, but I caught the leader up and passed him on the last beat.'

John Reay also stayed in the hunt with a seventh place finish to be sixth overall

Another British winner was Malcolm Courts in the Standard Masters event. Courts won the yellow group and is in 31st place overall. Best placed Brit in this event is Paul Weeden in 19th place. Bradley Taylor of Australia leads after three races with six points, second is Jan Scholten and in third Pete Conde.

In the Radial Grand masters, Australian Peter Heywood keeps his lead after a fourth place finish, equal on points with Brian Watson. Britain´s Ian Rawet is in third place after a seventh place finish. Klaus Schechting took the win with Josef Maurer of Germany second.

Peter Seidenberg of the USA continues to dominate the Radial Great Grand masters, adding a third win to his scoreline. Kerry Waraker of Australia is second and Tom Speed of New Zealand is third. Britain´s Robin Stenhouse dropped to his worst finish so far, a 14th but is in seventh overall. While Robin Jones had his best result to date with a tenth place to be 15th overall.

In the Standard Apprentice event Jyrki Taiminen of Finland takes over the overall lead after a win in race three. Former race leader Australian Brett Beyer scored an OCS dropping him off the podium altogether but will be back as soon as the discard kicks in.

British competitors are well placed in this event with three in the top five, Chris Gowers in third overall after a third place finish, Orlando Gledhill in fourth and Simon Barrington in fifth.

Kieth Wilkins finished the day in fifth place overall in the Standard Grand masters after an 11th in race three. Wolfgang Gerz of Germany leads, ahead of Australian Jack Schlachter. Winner today was John Tracy of Australia, a big change from his earlier 42nd and 43rd placings.

Wednesday, is a layday for all. Racing resumes on Thursday.

Laser Masters World Championships

Radial Apprentice
1 USA 170673 Liebl James, Male, 14 3 2 2 1 8.0
2 AUS 188594 Jagger John, Male, 106 4 1 1 6 12.0
3 AUS 173460 Casey Alison, Female, 11 5 4 3 5 17.0

Radial Masters
1 GBR 181711 Cockerill Stephen, Male, 326 6 2 3 1 12.0
2 AUS 190365 Adams Greg, Male, 81 2 4 2 4 12.0
3 NZL 181311 Orams Mark, Male, 259 1 9 1 2 13.0
4 USA 184433 Raab Chris, Male, 193 3 3 4 3 13.0
5 CAN 175948 Clark Al, Male, 4 10 1 5 5 21.0
6 GBR 183952 Reay John, Male, 74 7 10 9 7 33.0
7 NZL 182995 Keeton Michael, Male, 44 4 7 14 12 37.0
8 NZL 181722 Page Mark, Male, 263 5 6 6 24 41.0
9 AUS 181905 French Adam, Male, 1 8 5 15 19 47.0
10 NZL 161264 Sowry Glen, Male, 61 14 15 12 6 47.0

Radial Grand Masters
1 AUS 189028 Heywood Peter, Male, 196 5 1 1 4 11.0
2 AUS 192710 Watson Brian, Male, 155 4 2 2 3 11.0
3 GBR 186885 Rawet Ian, Male, 125 3 7 3 7 20.0
4 AUS 191608 Verdon Lew, Male, 207 2 4 6 10 22.0
5 AUS 185368 Walker Geoff, Male, 41 12 3 7 8 30.0
6 GBR 176743 Whipp Peter, Male, 208 11 5 5 11 32.0
7 AUS 180032 Schmechtig Klaus, Male, 187 16 6 10 1 33.0
8 NZL 150010 Ineson Richard, Male, 276 9 9 12 6 36.0
9 FRA 191500 Marcon Poopy, Male, 248 1 11 8 20 40.0
10 NZL 170531 Maddren Rex, Male, 260 7 12 14 14 47.0

Radial Great Grand Masters
1 USA 189811 Seidenberg Peter, Male, 156 1 2 1 1 5.0
2 AUS 190366 Waraker Kerry, Male, 154 4 1 2 4 11.0
3 NZL 181966 Speed Tom, Male, 242 3 5 5 6 19.0
4 NZL 176919 Quinn Jim, Male, 18 5 12 3 2 22.0
5 AUS 190351 Taylor Howard, Male, 109 9 9 4 5 27.0
6 AUS 163949 Marshall Greg, Male, 85 6 14 8 3 31.0
7 GBR 179618 Stenhouse Robin, Male, 328 7 6 10 14 37.0
8 AUS 163886 Piefke Ben, Male, 115 8 4 14 12 38.0
9 NZL 170538 Maddren Colin, Male, 245 2 22 6 9 39.0
10 NZL 180212 Shields Michael, Male, 24 12 10 12 7 41.0

Standard Apprentice
1 FIN 169983 Taiminen Jyrki, Male, 130 2 3 1 6.0
2 NZL 191624 Lord Rohan, Male, 344 3 2 2 7.0
3 GBR 149619 Gowers Christopher, Male, 229 11 4 3 18.0
4 GBR 192654 Gledhill Orlando, Male, 100 4 6 12 22.0
5 GBR 174686 Barrington Simon, Male, 346 5 5 16 26.0
6 AUS 181699 Maher Andrew, Male, 23 9 9 8 26.0
7 AUS 192641 Baisden Tony, Male, 230 13 8 7 28.0
8 AUS 187910 Bulka Mark, Male, 255 14 10 5 29.0
9 NZL 172224 Van Basten Batenburg Luuk, Male, 223 7 23 4 34.0
10 AUS 192588 Feeney Sean, Male, 122 6 12 17 35.0

Standard Masters
1 AUS 192601 Taylor Bradley, Male, 127 2 1 3 6.0
2 AUS 189014 Scholten Jan, Male, 22 1 2 7 10.0
3 AUS 181911 Conde Peter, Male, 132 3 5 5 13.0

Standard Grand Masters
1 GER 192673 Gerz Wolfgang, Male, 174 4 2 2 8.0
2 AUS 191638 Schlachter Jack, Male, 157 3 4 6 13.0
3 AUS 190362 Lowndes Robert, Male, 165 1 5 14 20.0
4 AUS 175298 Homan Sean, Male, 358 8 9 9 26.0
5 GBR 178770 Wilkins Keith, Male, 138 2 15 11 28.0
6 GER 192653 Nissen Michael, Male, 8 7 3 22 32.0
7 CAN 187152 Brown Ken, Male, 251 15 6 13 34.0
8 CAN 166047 Dawson-Edwards John, Male, 66 23 13 10 46.0
9 AUS 192300 Edmiston David, Male, 163 22 19 7 48.0
10 NZL 190324 Griffiths Peter, Male, 188 21 11 16 48.0

Event website: http://aus08.laserinternational.org