Byte C11 World Championships - Day one and two reports and images

by Event media on 27 Aug 2009
The Byte C11 World Championships are currently being sailed at Cork, in the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour in Kingston, Ontario. The event runs from August 22 to August 27.

Competitors from eight countries - Brazil, Bermuda, Great Britain, Singapore, Cayman Islands, Jamacia, Canada and USA are contesting the event.

Day One Report:

Race 1

It started after a postponement as the wind clocked and faded and then finally started in very light air. Below, the fleet, after two very agressive starts, was put under the black flag and finally got away.

The wind slowly died throughout the race but the wind was not the real story!

It was a day of 'firsts' for a young US Virgin Islands sailor, Ian Barrows. Sailing a Byte for the First time, in his first race, in the first Race of the Championship, at the end of the first beat, guess who arrives at the mark first!

He held this very narrow lead all the way down to the bottom mark and started back up the second beat of the double windward/leeward in first palce, staying on port and followed closely by defending World Champion Jon Emmett from Weymouth UK who had sailed his way through the pack. The sailors behind this pair pushed off to the left and it paid off handsomely as the wind backed and stayed a little stronger on the left side. Jon extracted himself a little better rounding the top mark in 5th and holding it to the finish. Ian, however, rounded well down but sailed an excellent run back into eighth by the end.

Mark Wong of Singapore sailed by far the beat best, being the first over to the left and was never challenged to the finish. He was followed by four countrymen, Najwa Jumali, Terrence Choo and Germaine Teo and, in sixth behind Jon Emmett, Clement Lim.

Race Two

This race almost never happened! The wind completely died after the first race and the fleet drifted for close to an hour. However Race Officer David Sprague kept hanging in there, even after several of the coach boats had actually collected their flock and were starting a tow home. All of a sudden, from 180 degrees to the first race, the wind filled in with boats actually starting to plane! The course was hurriedly reset and, after two false starts at what the fleet percieved to be a heavily favoured committee boat end, and then under a black flag, the race was on.

The wind had dropped well below planing to about eight knots but it held steady the rest of the race.

Koh would lead all the way to the first mark but was challenged half way up the beat by Michael Louzada from Brazil (fourth in the Worlds in Weymouth in 2008). Michael got out of phase and missed a port tack shift but still got around the weather mark third.

What is more interesting is the boat crossing just behind them, ISV sailor Ian Barrows who would round in sixth place, hold it all the way down the run and end up back at the weather mark in third place at the end of the second beat.

He sailed almost straight down the run which put him on the right side of the course. Below he is seen half way down the run, at the extreme right of the screen, at which point it was difficult to tell whether he was third or tenth as the lead boats were all gybing their way down the run in an effort to keep a clear lane.

He never wavered. He stayed on port tack all the way, sailing very deep to avoid the gybe, see below, but somehow managing to keep his cool, maintain his speed and his inside position as the boats to leeward closed in on him.

From there, it was leave the mark to port and sail 100 yards across the bow of the committee boat for his first place finish.

Ian was followed by Terrence Choo, Clement Lim, Xun Chai, Nathan Tan and Najwa Jumali, all from Singapore.

After two races, the top six are Terrence Choo SIN, Najwa Jumali SIN, Ian Barrows ISV, Clement Lim SIN, Nathan Tang SIN and Mark Wong SIN. Elsewhere in the standings, Denise Chagas leads the Brazilians in 11th and Sarah Douglas leads the Canadians in 12th.

Day Two

Race Three

The forecast was calling for the Kingston thermal to arrive late in the afternoon but, prior to its arrival, there was enough air to start racing and the Committee did not want to waste it - and it does not always arrive! As a result the race was sailed in about six - seven knots and flat water.

At the start, under a black flag, Jon Emmett got pinned at the Committee end and had little choice but to head off to the right. Unfortunately, left was the way to go and he was in the teens at the weather mark. However, he sailed well and got back to ninth.

Race Four

This race, was also started under the black flag and it was a clean start. Najwa Jumali had a spectacular start and can be seen a full boat length out in front down at the Committee boat.

Both Ian Barrows ISV and Brian Bulhoes BER had good clean air but neither would capitalize on it ending up 12th and 33rd respectively.

However, another Bermudan, Owen Siese, was having his best race of the regatta and is seen below coming into the weather mark just behind Terrence Choo SIN and Chai Xun SIN.

This was supposed to be a reach, below, but a wind shift turned it into a run!

Race Five

Ian Barrows ISV had made up his mind that he would start at the port end and set up to leeward of the fleet with about 45 seconds to go.

However, he was well behind the line and Natasha Yokoyama, SIN 9, hardened up over top of him and took the pin.

Below, Ian still had room bertween himself and the Singapore boat and got a clean start and a good lane which he worked all the way to the top arriving at the weather mark third.

At the weather mark it was Najwa Jumali leading but second was Brian Bulhoes from Bermuda, having his best race of the series.

Brian Belhoes would eventually lose second place to Darren Choy SIN and Ian Barrows would slip to sixth.

Race Six

The last race was started in about eight - nine knots. It was a pity that nothing transpired to postpone the race because, right after the finish, the Kingston thermal arrived but, by then, the maximum prescribed four races had been sailed.

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Results and Event website: http://www.bytechamps.org/