Laser Radial Men’s World Championship overall

by Alaine Neilson on 20 Jul 2012 Laser Radial Men’s World Championship 2012 was held at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron from 12th to 17th July.

Tristan Brown from Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club in Perth proved unbeatable, holding on to first place for the last three days of the regatta.

Conditions were unpredictable throughout the championship with wind shifts and large pressure differences. The first day’s racing was abandoned due to lack of breeze. But by the last day the wind had picked up well.

Principal Race Officer Kevin Wilson said of the final day, ‘It was an excellent day to finish off with. The breeze just came in nicely. The last race was eight to ten knots for the whole race. And the direction held at 130 degrees south east for both races. The last race was a very good clean race with good pressure.’

Tristan Brown sailed consistently well regardless of the conditions. He skillfully used tricky conditions to his advantage. In all his count races he scored seven or under.

‘My comebacks through the fleet were what saved me because quite often I’d be rounding the top mark in twentieth or thirtieth place and then I’d work my way back through the fleet. So just saving those points each time kept adding up, I guess, but I’ve had a bit of practice of getting bad starts’, he said.

At the finish, Tristan was twelve points ahead of Matthew Wearn, also from Perth. Tristan won the 2012 Australian Laser Championship earlier this year, and in May 2012 Tristan was named Yachting Western Australia Male Sailor of the Year.

There were 52 competitors and nine countries represented in the regatta, making it a truly international event. The majority of sailors were Australian, but there were also entrants from New Zealand, Spain, Peru, United States of America, Argentina, Japan, Singapore and Papua New Guinea.

Congratulations to Tristan Brown, Matthew Wearn and Jeremy O’Connell (Australia) in gaining first, second and third places in this world championship regatta.

Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron is looking forward to the next regatta, the 2012 Queensland IRC State Championship to be held from 22–23 September and of course the famous Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race on Friday 3 August. To keep up to date with sailing events visit the RQYS Sailing Notice Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron website