Hungarians continue assault on Flying Dutchman Worlds

by Di Pearson on 5 Jan 2004 Szabolcs Majthenyi/Andras Domokos (HUN) have continued to outsail the rest of the fleet at the Flying Dutchman Worlds at the Sail Melbourne Regatta.

With only one race completed yesterday, officials decided to sail an extra race today to catch up, which they did, finally getting the 55 boats off the start line at 11.30am local time in light and shifting breezes.

It seems no matter what weather is thrown at them, the Hungarian pair appear to sail well in all, in fact, faultlessly and making it look easy.

As the light airs once again oscillated, Szabolcs/Domokos pipped Frank Havik/Guido Alkemade (NED) by nine seconds, with a further two seconds to the third placed Brett Beyer/Roddy Johnson (AUS). This was a first appearance in a top-three position for any of the Dutch teams at these Worlds.

By this afternoon’s race that started at 1500 hours the east-nor-east winds had increased slightly to the 10-13 knot range, but the same problems existed, the wind shifted constantly and the best picked it right, but not all the time.

Race 5 saw a different winner in the Norman Rydge/Richard Scarr combination (AUS) from Kay-Uwe Luedtke/Kai Schaefers (GER), their best result to-date. Havik/Guido seem to like the lighter airs, with a third place, lifting them up the standings somewhat.

After racing, Brett Beyer commented, ‘we were leading both races today, but blew it going up the beat in both. It was really light out there today, with massive shifts, 30 degrees worth at times, from one side to the other. Having said that, we are very happy with the way we went today, a lot of good sailors got some average results, but we managed to stay up there.’

The local heroes, Gavin Dagley/John Dryden (AUS) had a ninth and 14th today, Dagley saying, ‘it was so patchy and shifty out there all day, all the good sailors picked it, pretty much all the top performers, just in a different order today.’

A frustrated Ian McCrossin (AUS) told of his and Cook’s day, ‘we got a seventh and 13th place today, in that last race, every time we tacked we went backwards – it was a particularly tough day.’

Szabolcs/Domokos finished sixth in Race five, so still maintain their handy lead for the Championship, on nine points after a race drop.

Rydge/Scarr have sneaked into second place after their win today with 17 points, from Hans-Peter Schwarz/Peter van Koppen (GER) on 18 points after dropping their eighth place in Race 4 today, with Brett Beyer/Roddy Johnson one point behind on 19, for fourth place overall. All results are provisional at this stage, pending any protests.

While it looks unlikely the Hungarians will be beaten, with only two races to go and an eight point lead, the minor placings are still wide open, the top eight boats all in with a chance.

With five races away, only two remain and Sandringham Yacht Club Race Officials have decided to try and complete the series tomorrow, as Wednesday’s weather, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, is not looking conducive to sailing.

Full for results, photos and details go to the official website:

www.sailmelbourne.com.au