Nov 19, 2019

2019 IOM World Championship - Brazil Day 2


It's been said that you don't ever win a Championship on Day 1 but you sure can lose a Championship on Day 1. Getting off to a good start is the aim of all the skippers, because if you have a poor day to open your account, the catch-up may not happen. Several skippers must be feeling this way after their opening, and there must be others who are breathing a sigh of relief that they are off and running.

Day Two was very different to the opening day. The winds were light in the morning and for a fair bit of the afternoon. Later in the day, B rigs made their appearance for a while as the breeze started to build over 12 knots. The temperature was up there, and by the end of the day, skippers were feeling the pinch. Rosco reported that he was absolutely stuffed by the end of the day - and there are 4 to go.

\2019 IOM World Championships\2 rigging yard

The Aussies in the rigging yard. Glad to see everyone is helping one another out. AUS163 is John Gower lending a hand to 72 - Dougy Allen. Imagine the smorgorsboard of equipment and ideas you could pick up just walking around and looking at the boats.

The racing at this level is fast and furious. There are decisions to make quickly and if you get it wrong, the consequenses can be dire! In this photo, Doug is faced with plenty of traffic if he is going to make the best of his port tack.

\2019 IOM World Championships\2 doug in traffic

 Sean continues to place consistently well. He is carrying four second places, a sixth, a seventh and a fourteenth. That is enough to place him in third postion overnight, just one point off Ante Kovesevic, who is in second. Zvonko has taken a decent lead of 8 points, by placing first in three races, taking a second, third, fourth and seventh. Zvonko appears to be in the box seat at this early stage, but the World Championships are a marathon, not a middle distance race!

There is plenty of time for things to change, and we need to be on the lookout for one previous World Champion - Peter Stollery. Peter may have been one of those whose boat turned up fairly late at the venue, and his first day included a couple of uncharacteristic placings. However on day 2, Peter racked up a first, second and third, and is one to watch in the next few days.

 \2019 IOM World Championships\2 sean start

Some of the leaders are shown in this photo at the start of a race. Unfortunately for Sean, he got caught in the second row, behind Zvonko (35), Ante (30), Stollery (39) and Mark Gollison (55).

\2019 IOM World Championships\2 topmark rounding in company

In a different race later in the afternoon, this shot shows Ian Vickers (91) leading around the offset mark from Sean (171), Jonsey (148), Graeme Bantock (95) and Zvonko (35). Rosco (39) is chasing hard.

At the end of Day 2, they have completed 7 full races and are up to Heat B of race 8, so the second drop is almost on us. Scores will change a bit once that drop kicks in. Naturally, the movement will be affected by what happens in race 8, but potentially one big mover may be Ian Vickers, who is sitting on a 14 that he would like to discard.

Rosco spent most of the day in B fleet, but made his way back to A fleet later in the afternoon when the wind picked up. Paul Jones had a good day, moving up from 13th to 7th whilst Doug Allen and John Cole-Cook bounced around 20th place. Russell Grey slipped a bit today, but must be pretty happy with his start. Edgar struggled a bit today, but hopefully he can re-group in some lighter conditions and make a move today.

There are plenty of chances to watch some of the action if you are on facebook, with the 2019 IOM Worlds page hosting some "Watching Parties", as well as some facebook live feeds from Ray Seta from the USA and RC Vela Brazil.

Shout out to Jennifer Gollison for fantastic photos from the venue. Jen has captured some outstanding action shots, which we are certain that the skippers will really appreciate. A great shot of Russell's K2 leads this story - spray flying. Great shot!

Results at the end of Race 7 follow:

\2019 IOM World Championships\2 results