Laser Radial Youth World Championship at Kieler Yacht Club - Day 4
by Laser Radial Youth World Championships 24 Aug 2018 12:15 AEST
18-25 August 2018
Uffe Tomasgaard from Norway found the right spots of the wind - 2018 Laser Radial Youth World Championships © Laser Radial Youth World Championships
The day started again with waiting. A covered sky and limp flags due to the lacking wind were dominating the picture of the marina in Schilksee on Thursday morning. So the first start of the Laser Radial Youth Worlds was postponed for two hours.
In the boys' fleet, the leading three sailors started with only one point of difference into the final races. The Italian sailor Francesco Viel only had one point more than his fellow countryman Guido Gallinaro and Julian Hoffmann from Oberstdorf, who had the same point score and has the writing "Rio2016" on his boat. Background: It is the Laser from Philipp Buhl, which he had sailed at the Olympics. "I know him from our club. It is cool to sail with the boat of a good friend, who has sailed the Olympics with it", said the 15-year old. But he did not just benefit from the boat of the friend, that had already successfully passed the Olympics test, but also gets tips from the World Championship bronze medal winner from Aarhus, said Hoffmann.
"I never would have thought to be able to sail that way up front", stated the sailor from the region Allgaeu happily. He only had to overcome one mishap so far. "It was difficult to see, where the pressure is. So I started on the wrong side, the start in general was not good." He could take this place 40 as a discard. All other results were among the top eight, so that Hoffmann was optimistic when starting into the day.
But when the first race of the day was started short after 1pm, everything went wrong for Julian Hoffmann. At the start, a big part of the fleet did choose the right side, also Hoffmann. It seemed not to have been a really good decision, since others were in the lead after the first upwind. The Italian Cesare Baranino did take over the lead, could increase the distance between him and the followers and let no one else take away the victory from him. Several times, the Italian sailor did reach out for the rudder to remove sea grass - but even that could not stop him.
The American Chase Carraway did fight to move up in the fleet and crossed the finish line as the second boat. While the first two boats reached the finish line alone, it was a close fight for position three. Tom Higgins (Ireland) and Uffe Tomasgaard (Norway) did not spare themselves anything. In the end the Irish sailor was one step ahead. "With the waves and the shifting winds, I just did not make it to get around him. But all in all, it went really well", said the sailor from Norway. "You had to look around the whole time to keep an eye on the gusts. I stood up twice to be able to see where the pressure is." Tomasgaard obviously did see the gusts quite well. The Norwegian thus took over the lead in the overall ranking. The Italian Guido Gallinaro and Cesare Barabino are following on place two and three. Julian Hoffmann did slip down to rank 14.
Vanessa Gregor (Kiel) did have a dream start for the final races. She did win the first race of the day. "I did see the wind shifts and drove to the better side. Since I am coming from a small lake with a dam, I am used to that", explained the sailor from Remscheid. She could bring her lead across the finish line. But in the second race, that victory set her under pressure. And she could not stand up to that. "I could not cope with it mentally", she explained. She crossed the finish line as the 45. boat.
For Laura Schewe (Kiel) it was the other way round. While she was still quite far behind on rank 27 in the beginning, she was fighting her way back to the front in the second race, making the right tactical decisions and thus could finish on place three. So she moved up again to rank 6 in the overall ranking. Ana Moncada Sanchez did show a constant race performance. "I was looking for the wind shifts the whole time and went with them. It was difficult, but I am very satisfied." The sailor from Spain is on rank three, Matilda Talluri (Italy) is on one and Matilda Nicholls (Great Britain) on rank two. Julia Buesselberg (Berlin) is now on rank four after her results from today (23 and 19).
"Until now everything went so well" was Race Organizer Fabian Bach's summary so far. "We had completely different conditions so far. Much wind on Monday and then light winds the last days - for each sailor something." With the shifts from 10 to 20 degrees, the experienced teams on the race courses had to puzzle a bit, but that's part of the game. "With the stable conditions, we in the race committee are very satisfied." For the following days, they are expecting more wind again. "For tomorrow, the forecast is really good. More in the upper part."
Results of the regatta can be found here.