Laser Worlds 08 - First day of Racing Report

Pic from regatta website.
News from the CYA website:

2008 LASER WORLDS REPORT
Two Races Completed

Report by Tommy Wharton


Finally the 2008 Laser World Championships got underway yesterday with two races completed in all qualifying heats. The first day of racing was officially lost on Thursday due to extreme thunderstorms, and on Friday a tricky 7-12 knots filled in for all the eager sailors. The wind was not that stable however, and it was not uncommon to see both sides of the race courses with different breezes, big lead changes occurring, and very inconsistent scores amongst the 157 competitors. Many pre-regatta favourites suffered tough days, including world #2 Paul Goodison (47th overall), Andreas Geritzer (57th) and Andrew Murdoch (78th).

On the Canadian side, young Abe Torchinsky, from Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, lit up the racecourse with a 3rd and 5th. He sailed incredible and is currently tied in 6th overall with 2007 World Champion and the #1 ranked Laser sailor in the world, Tom Slingsby. Veteran Mike Kalin from Kingston, also had a fantastic day, posting a 8 and 9 to sit in 13th place right now. After these two, the remaining seven Canadians had some tough races, but many came back from very deep roundings early to post scores that may turn out to be not that bad if the wind and weather stays this unstable. Don’t count anybody out of this regatta, it is way to early to call.

The racing continues today and tomorrow with two races a day. At the end of racing on Sunday, providing we get enough qualifying races in, the sailors will be allowed to drop their worst score and fleet splits will be made (into Gold, Silver, and Bronze). After this, three days of finals will take place, with two races a day planned. So lots of racing remains, the extended forecast has some unstable weather coming, my bet is on a pretty high scoring series for many. The key ingredient will be consistency, and never giving up on a race. Stay tuned for more daily reports at the conclusion of each racing day.

Note: regatta website can be found at aus08.laserinternational.org/
Updates can also be found at www.sailing.org

Overall results (after 2 races) – 157 boats
1st – Julio Alsogaray – ARG – 1,1 (2 pts)
2nd – Matias Del Solar – CHI – 2,3 (5 pts)
3rd - Vasilij Zbobar – SLO – 4,2, (6 pts)

Canadian results
6th - Abe Torchinsky – 3,5 (8)
13th Mike Kalin – 8,9 (17)
44nd Mike Leigh – 14,23 (37)
45th Chris Dold - 21,16 (37)
50th Bernard Luttmer - 17,25 (42)
64th Anthony Boueilh - 26,21 (47)
69th Luke Ramsay – 32, 17 (49)
90th Dave Wright - 23,35 (58)
100th Lee Parkhill – 25,36 (61)



Report by Tommy Wharton
National Team Coach
Canadian Yachting Association