B14 Worlds

One day in and Pank and Edwards lead on Garda

The 5th B14 World Championships, hosted by Circolo Vela Torbole on Lake Garda, Italy opened with two races on Monday, July 19. Pre-event discussion was that this was as wide open a championship as the class had known with as many as eight potential champions and many teams capable of winning races. The first two races confirmed that this event will probably go down to the wire.

The Southerly Ora was blowing at 10-15 knots for the first start but was showing signs of instability. As is usual, there were two strategies for the first beat; hard right into more pressure or left up the shoreline to ‘Lucky Point’. This time it was the left that played big time with a massive port lift in the second half of the beat bringing defending champions, Tim Fells and Shaun Barber, through to an early lead.

The conditions remained shifty for the next 2 laps, regularly shuffling the pack. Fells and Barber defended aggressively, particularly from the flying Australian team of Kieran Livermore and Karen Wiseman who were showing great speed. Fells / Barber (GBR 758) held on to take the first gun, Livermore / Wiseman (AUS 371) second, Nils Jolliffe and Jon Branch (GBR 764) third ahead of another quick Australian team, Martin Johnson and Mike Halkes (AUS 367).

For race two, the Ora was becoming more variable with significant pressure differences and big shifts. Current UK and European champions, Dave Hayes and Sean Dwyer found the best route up the left bank to lead down the run. However, they were not able to hold back Jono Pank and Rich Edwards who came through on the second beat to take a comfortable lead. Behind them the snakes and ladders continued to make it hard to maintain places. At the finish Pank / Edwards (GBR 771) took the gun from Hayes / Dwyer (GBR 767) ahead of the leading Australian’s, Peter Ray and Gareth Wells (AUS 370) and the consistent Matt Searle and Sandy Ramus (GBR 725).

So a day when consistency was hard to find ended with the 5 strongest British teams holding the top slots.

Overall after 2 races:
1st GBR 771, Jono Pank and Rich Edwards (6,1) 7 points
2nd GBR 725, Matt Searle and Sandy Ramus (5,4) 9 points
3rd GBR 758, Tim Fells and Shaun Barber (1,9) 10 points
4th GBR 764, Nils Jolliffe and Jon Branch (3,8) 11 points
5th GBR, 767 Dave Hayes and Sean Dwyer (10,2) 12 points
6th AUS, 371 Kieran Livermore and Karen Wiseman (2,11) 13 poin