2019 International WASZP Games - Day 4
by Marc Ablett 27 Jan 2019 06:56 PST
22-28 January 2019
After celebrating Australia Day in Perth the only way the WASZP fleet knows how, we launched back into racing today.
Australia Day was a real treat, with Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club providing a party yacht for the WASZP fleet to enjoy a raft up in Rocky Bay, a Perth tradition. The culture in this fleet is amazing and the tight knit community is one that is quite unbelievable given the fleet is only 2 years old!
With a beautiful sea-breeze coming in again (it does this every day), the race officer Geoff Brown made the wise decision to complete 3 races, leaving only 1 to sail tomorrow and it is all to play for. The standard has lifted incredibly over the past 8 days since the beginning of the Australian Nationals, with today providing 3 separate heat winners and leaders Rory Hunter and Tom Trotman not having a race win.
In the first race of the day Hunter sailed conservatively and kept a loose cover on Trotman around the course resulting in a 7th and 9th for the pair. However this manoeuvre nearly backfired with Alexander Hogheim from Norway moving into contention. This suddenly meant Hunter had to sail aggressively again and with Trotman finishing 2nd to Hogheim and Hunter in 3rd. Trotman, then finished the day with a 2nd to keep the pressure on Hunter going into the final day.
The pressure will be on from the start with placings able to shuffle right through the top 6 to sort out the final podium positions. In other divisions, Brad Devine is leading the over 45 masters, Elise Beavis is leading Female, Hunter is 1st Junior under 21 and young Tommy Devine is leading the 6.9m rigs.
Results so far can be found here.