Australians second and third at I-14 Worlds Day 2

by I14 media on 16 Jul 2008 Andy and Tom Partington won race 2 of the International 14 World Championships by a barnstorming seven minutes, making the strong winds and enormous waves off Warnemunde look like a stroll in the park.

Such was the British horizon job in 16 to 22 knot winds that second placed Australians, 2005 World Champions Lindsay Irwin and Andrew Perry, thought they had won the race until they returned to shore to discover another boat had beaten them to it.

For all but the Partingtons, sailing a five-year-old M12 hull, this was a race of survival, of simply getting around the track in one piece. Yesterday's winners, Archie Massey and Matt Noble, were looking set for another great result in the top three until a capsize put them to seventh, although this is still good enough for them to be leading the regatta at this early stage. Worse was to come on the way back to shore when their rudder snapped, leaving them with an afternoon of intense boat work to be ready for race three the following day.

Another British team Douglas Pattison and Damian Ash started slowly but gradually wound themselves up to speed, surviving a mid-tack capsize and turning on the afterburners down the final two reaches to come in third, ahead of Aussies Dave Alexander and Cameron McDonald. Brit/Aussie combo Jarrod Simpson and Grant Rollerson also had a poor start to the race but came firing through the fleet to grab fifth in a close tussle for the minor placings.

Only 30 of the 90-boat international fleet managed to finish the race, but everyone had a story to tell, of capsizes, pitchpoles and cartwheels down the bumpy track.

For Wednesday the forecast is even stronger, and with the waves that roll past Warnemunde it could be too much for the fleet to race.

For the time being Archie Massey and Matt Noble hold the lead, although Aussies Roger Blasse and Andrew Gilligan have equal points in second place. Partingon and Irwin will be hoping that they can add to today's successful outing and shake off their poor results in race one.



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