RS Aero World Championship at Hayling Island Sailing Club - Day 2
by RS Aero International Class Association 28 Aug 2024 18:26 AEST
26-30 August 2024
RS Aero World Championship at Hayling Island Day 2 © Oli King Photography
Day 2 provided glorious sunshine and lighter breezes that were welcome after the excitement and weary bodies from the fresh breeze the day before. The 175 entries are split over two courses and rotate each day for maximum variety of conditions.
The day started with about 10kn dropping to about 5kn by the end of racing which allowed all competitors, biggies and litteluns, to have an opportunity at the front over the four rig sizes. 3 races were completed again on each course and the variety of conditions saw plenty of movement in the results sheet.
In the RS Aero 5s Roscoe Martin (GBR) won 2 races to take the lead from UK Class coach Sammy Isaacs-Johnson (GBR) in 2nd overall. Ex RS Aero World Youth Champion Jonathan Bailey (GBR) jumps up to 3rd with a 7,1,2. The RS Aero 5 is the second largest Class with 53 entries and achieves gender parity with an approximate 50% male/female split!
In the RS Aero 6s RS Aero European Champion Sofiia Naumenko (UKR) managed to drop her UFD to take the lead with a solid 2,2,5. Dan Venables (GBR) won the day with a 1,6,1 to jump to 2nd with past RS Aero 5 World Champ Andrew Frost (GBR) up to 3rd with a 6,1,4.
The RS Aero 7 Class sees Finley Dickinson (GBR) one point ahead of Arthur Farley (GBR) with Tim Hire (GBR) in 3rd. The RS Aero 7s are the largest Class with 65 entries
The RS Aero 9s enjoyed the benefits of their generous sail size in the lighter breeze. Ben Flower (CAN) took the first two races to extend his lead, but Canada's world dominance ended in the final race with Peter Barton (GBR) taking the win as the wind softened. Sweden's Erik Wahlberg (SWE) had a great day with 2,3,3 for a solid 3rd overall at the half way stage.
After racing competitors enjoyed a drink at the tally board thanks to support from Seldon and in the evening Selden provided a generous spread of prizes for the Daily Awards where the lead sailors gave their Top-Tips on what worked well for them that day.
In each Class the World titles will be hotly contested between a mix of previous Worlds medallists, up and coming new talent and a few new hotshots tempted into the RS Aero Class from other Classes. Day 3 looks set to be another glamour sunny day with another wind direction to test the sailors representing 18 Nations. Stay tuned to watch the action unfold!
Full results at sailevent.net/noticeboard/12s
A full gallery of photos by Oli King are available at www.olikingphotography.com/rsaeroworlds2024
Thank you to all the supporters of the RS Aero World Championships! Rooster are supporting the prizes and have their tent onsite for any kit needs. They are supplying the RS Aero Worlds event shirts. RS Sailing are supplying a large fleet of charter RS Aeros and are providing their event support including apres sailing drinks at the tally board! Selden are supporting our daily awards and Tuesday's apres sailing drinks at the tally board! Harken are supporting daily awards and Noble Marine are long-term supporters.
The RS Aero World Championship will support the charity Macmillan Cancer Support via the RS Bike Challenge fundraiser, with a raffle for a brand new RS Aero sail kindly provided by RS Sailing. Details of the bike challenge are at www.rssailing.com/rsaerocyclechallenge