B14 Worlds Championships at Yacht Club de Carnac - Day 3
by Mark Watts 1 Aug 2019 01:46 PDT
25-28 July 2019
We can't talk about Day 3 without a mention for Day 2. Miserable sailors as they spent another day looking at gusts to 40 knots and another day of no racing.
But in true B14 style the evening social hosted by the UK fleet turned sad faces to dancing as the fleet descended on the yacht club in their 60's/70's gear for an evening of dancing and sophisticated cocktails including such delights as Snowballs, Babycham, Le Barnsie and Slow Comfortable Gybe Under Pressure! Special mention goes to the fancy dress winner Daryll Geary and some of the other amazing/disturbing/just plain wrong fancy dress choices.
Day 3 dawned and an excited fleet gathered for the revised earlier start and 4 race day on what looked like a perfect day on the water with a forecast of 10 knots building all day to depending on which forecast you believed as much as 23 knots. This led to much head scratching as teams made their bets on rig setup! One thing was for sure after 2 days on onshore storms the troublesome weed was now on the beach and being removed by the Carnac Plage beach clearing team!
Race 1 (8-10 knots)
Snatch (Craig Garmston/Louis Chapman (AUS)) took up the charge to lead around the top mark from the left. Anthill Mob (Tim Harrison and Johnny Ratcliffe (GBR)) rounding next showing their usual (frustrating!) ability to appear and get straight back up to speed. Harken (Nick Craig/Toby Lewis (GBR)) rounding third.
No one quite knows how but positions reversed on the first run setting up a theme for the day with no one really getting their heads round the shifts on what was definitely not a one way race track.
Anthill mob lost on the battle on the next to slip to third behind Snatch. Harken taking the win to take the AUS-GBR battle to 1-0 to GBR
Race 2 (10-13 knots and increasing sea state)
Bonework (Scott Cunningham/Joey Randall (AUS)) lead round but then, missing a few too many brain cells from numerous Carnac nightclub sessions, disappear back in to the pack.
Snatch came through to first to keep the Aussie flag flying holding of a charging Brightmile (Mark Watts/Matt Johnson (GBR)) to take the win.
Richie and Lisa "The Nude" showing insane downwind pace to take 3rd from Nick Craig who for once seemed to be struggling to find his way through the shifts proving he is human after all!
1-1 in the AUS-GBR battle.
Race 3 (15 knots and lumpy)
Breeze continuing to build and the seastate was going to challenge many in finding upwind pace.
Craig Garmston led out in to the left hand corner starting to show the usual Aussie pace in the breeze. Harken chased hard but was unable to bridge the gap. The battle for third was another Aussie Brit battle with BoneWork in third into the final downwind. It all got a bit close as Donkey nearly caught and mounted Bonework. Gybing off Donkey ultimately made the wrong call sailing in to less pressure and just holding on for 4th.
2-1 to the Aussies.
Race 4 and a huge rain storm approached. The wind built to 20+ knots and the Carnac washing machine fired up another gear.
It was an Aussie 1, 2 at the first mark as they hit the turbos upwind with their flatter rigs. Nick Craig rounding in third. Down the first run it was full on B14 blasting and Brightmile pulled through the pack to 4th. The top 3 either through fatigue or looking for something out right headed out together. Brightmile taking the other mark with Anthill Mob and then taking a lift out left. At the top mark the Aussies held one two with Brightmile pulling through Harken as they overstood the mark coming in from the right. The final downwind charge putting smiles on much of the fleet as the Aussies end the day holding the bragging rights.
3-1 to the Aussies.
Snatch now owe Brightmile and Bonework beer for setting up a fantastic final two days by getting in the way of the Craig vs. Craig AUS / GBR match who continue their pre-worlds battle for 3rd/4th both on and off the water in the bar!
The forecast looks light so can Harken look to repeat their light wind form of the Euros to bring them back to the front or will Snatch continue their strong starts and consistent tactics to keep hold of the lead?
Fingers crossed the forecast is wrong and we get some good racing over a very light final 2 days as the fleet look forward to nursing aching bodies over the club BBQ and beer night. One thing is for sure the usual social crew will still find a way to crawl to the local nightclub despite tomorrows early start and potentially another 4 race day!
Results after four races can be found here.