2012 Laser World Championships kick off!

by Canadian Sailing Team on 5 May 2012 Very interesting and challenging first day at the 2012 Laser World Championships. Wind was a very shifty off shore breeze with lots of pressure differences. Wind strength ranged from 3 knots to 10 knots. A solid day for most of the Canadians today.

Highlight of the first race was the performance of Tom Ramshaw sailing in the blue fleet, and sailing at his second Laser Worlds. He was in fourth place at the first mark, moved up to second on the down wind and then played the left side on the upwind. This gave hime a 20 second lead at the top mark second time. Unfortunately his lead got eaten up by the middle of the last run and he finished a very credible fourth.

Good sailing from Alex Heinzemann as well who was in the top 10 for most of the race as was Robert Davis both in the red fleet. Good comebacks from Lee Parhill to 12th, David Wright 14th coming from 26th.

Second race highlight goes to Alex Heinzmann who was leading at the first mark and finished a very credible sixth. David was fourth at the first mark and after dropping some boats on the run came back strong in the second upwind to finish a close third. Lee Parkhill was in the leading bunch for most of the race but lost pressure on the last run to lose six boats for a 11th place finish. Chris Dold had a difficult day making a huge comeback in his first race and then did the opposite in the second race dropping from top five to 26th in the fading breeze.

Overall a promising starts for the team with David around 12th overall and Heinzemann in 13th. It is an 11am start tomorrow with a wind forecast of 8 to 10 knots out the North West.

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