Macquarie Access World Championships - Close racing in big breeze
by Di Pearson on 10 Apr 2012
Close 303 racing - Macquarie Access World Championships 2012 Andrea Francolini Photography
http://www.afrancolini.com/
Macquarie Access World Championships, hosted by Middle Harbour Yacht Club, are currently underway. Competitors got a taste of some serious wind and cold today, what sailors call 'fresh to frightening.' An increasingly strong south-easterly made the temperature plummet to 17 degrees at midday, the coldest day on record for seven months as racing continued on Sydney Harbour.
'This is why we sail,' said Liesl Tesch of winds that peaked at around 20 knots with gusts. Sailing with skipper, Beijing Paralympic silver medallist Dan Fitzgibbon, the Australian crew added a further two wins to their perfect score of two victories yesterday, to lead the SKUD 18 class.
After two days of racing, the Australians lead the New Zealand team of Tim Dempsey and Jan Apel by six points. Both teams are waiting on confirmation of London Paralympic selection and are using the Macquarie Access Worlds for serious training.
The Kiwis, who also enjoy big winds, pulled a pair of second places out of the bag, but as Apel said: 'We’re here to try and win.
'The idea is to beat Dan and Liesl – we like the idea of it – but we haven’t sailed against them much, so we’ll see,' the retired school teacher said. 'We’re really enjoying the event; it’s a really good set-up and the volunteers are really friendly and helpful,' she said.
Volunteers from MHYC, the Macquarie Group Foundation, HMAS Penguin, NSW Maritime and Marine Rescue were on the beach and at Middle Harbour Yacht Club to help get competitors boats on the water and ashore again following racing and on the water assisting with safety and race management.
First up, they assisted two-person classes; the SKUD 18 and Access 303 to get on the water for the first session starting at 11.00am this morning, all of whom are very appreciative.
Patricia Ennis (AUS) and former world champion and Paralympic coach Michael Leydon have taken over the lead from reigning world champions Zoltan Pegan and Eva Mircsev (HUN) in the two-person Access 303 class today, scoring a third place and a win.
After finishing sixth in the first race of the day, the Hungarians felt the conditions were too much and retired from race four, dropping them down to fourth overall. Pegan is also unwell, having arrived at the Championships with a virus. A number of others also retired from race four, finding the going too tough.
With four races away, Ennis/Leydon now lead G’rard Eychenne/Andrew Jager from France and Wayne Crabb/Bob Schahinger (AUS).
'It was great top-end conditions,' said Leydon, an able-bodied sailor from the ACT. 'I’m proud we started and it’s a testament to the class and the amount of ability in it,' he added.
Leydon admitted that despite the high winds, 'we sailed with a full main – we would have been better off to reef like most the others did – they had better control of their boats.
'We were bow down in the gusts and there were these little fronts that kept coming through,' he said.
Lister Hughes, an international jury member at the Worlds, was on the water for the two races. 'I thought they all sailed exceptionally well,' he said. 'The wind was very up and down, mostly between 10 and 20 knots. The competitors were outstanding; I admire them,' he said.
This afternoon, the single-person classes started their racing session just after 2.00pm. Although the wind appeared to have died down a little, the gusts kept sweeping the course area near Balmoral. On the Harbour proper, gusts of up to 39 knots were recorded.
Macquarie Access World Championships website
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