Laser Radial Youth World Championship at Kieler Yacht Club - Day 5
by Laser Radial Youth Worlds 25 Aug 2018 04:54 AEST
18-25 August 2018
The Laser fleet at the storm front ©
www.segel-bilder.de
Wind and waves did increase quite a bit on Friday. And then there was even a storm front approaching Kiel on the second last day of the Laser Radial Youth Worlds.
The first race had just finished, then the dinghies were waiting on the race courses, until the dark clouds had passed. "First there were really strong winds, then there was hardly anything left", was the summary from Laura Schewe (Kiel) about the day. Before the last day, Italy is leading the fleet. Both in the girls' fleet with Matilda Talluri, and in the boys' fleet it is Guido Gallinaro from Italy, who is in the lead. For tomorrow, there are two more races planned.
Matilda Talluri (Italy) and Ana Moncada Sanchez (Spain) proved once more to be real all-rounders, who could show a consistent performance also in stronger winds and are continuing to lead the fleet on rank one (47 points) and two (50). Behind them is Mathilda Nicholls (Great Britain/59).
But the first start for the Russion Valeriya Lomatchenko on rank four went completely wrong. After the starting signal the dinghies were rushing across the starting line, and the Russian sailor had no possibility anymore to get away and was stuck at the pin-end boat. But despite the bad start, she was fighting her way back into the fleet.
Laura Schewe (Kiel) had to let two competitors pass at the mark after the second upwind, but finished with a good eighth place.
"I had a great start and could take over the Australian girl on the downwind", reported Lillian Meyer (USA) about the first race. "It was a good day, but very difficult to sail." She is on rank seven right behind Laura Schewe in the overall ranking.
"I thought I would like strong winds better, but then I took the waves badly, a gust got me, I had the wrong timing and did capsize", was Alex Schonrock's (Great Britain/place 12) summary. Now she is hoping to be able to keep the lead in the U-17 ranking. She cannot afford a bad results anymore due to an already high discard (penalty for pumping or swinging). Before the final race day, the British sailor is leading in the U-17 ranking with 119 points, behind her are Eline Verstraelen from Belgium (125 points) and the Giorgia Cingolani from Italy (136). In the whole fleet, they are on the ranks 12, 14, and 16.
In the boys' fleet, Julian Hoffmann (Oberstdorf) did successfully leave the previous day behind and was able to find his former strength again, but then the problems reappeared. With a second and 33. place, the sailor from Oberstdorf is now on rank eleven overall, but in the U-17 ranking he is on rank four with only six points difference to the Worlds' title.
Uffe Tomasgaard (Norway) also messed up the second race and had to give away the leading position after becoming 32. By the way, he is sharing his passion for the Laser with his older brother Hermann Tomasgaard, who had to surrender in the Olympic Laser in a very tight final race at the World Championships in Aarhus a few weeks ago by just half a meter to Philipp Buhl and became sixth.
At the top of the boys' fleet is Guido Gallinaro (Italy) in front of Josh Armit (New Zealand) and Francesco Viel (Italy). Josh Armit is looking forward to the next day. "it was a good day today and I had a lot of fun out there." So he could also forget about the penalty. He had violated rule 42 (pumping and swinging), what got him a penalty of 69 points, which he could take as a discard.
"In the meantime, there were up to 38 knots of wind keeping us busy", explained the Race Organizer Mandus Freese. Therefore the second race of the Gold fleets of the girls had to be cancelled after the first upwind. With the strong gusts, there was also a big wind shift to the right and the warning about an approaching storm front. "So we decided to better cancel and keep everyone together." The Race Organizer was happy about the professional and high-class fleet of sailors. "Really great", is his conclusion about the races so far.
Results can be found here