Nick Craig extends lead

Robert Deaves gives us todays lowdown from the OK Worlds in Denmark

Greg Wilcox (NZL) moves up to third position with two first places today, although two second places for Nick Craig (GBR) has extended his lead after six races. With the discard kicking in today, Jonas Quist (SWE) moves up to second after dropping his black flag disqualification on day one.

A north-westerly breeze and brilliant sunshine greeted the fleet for day three of the OK Dinghy World Championship at Skælskør in Denmark with another day of patchy, testing winds that saw many high profile casualities picking up high scores.

Race five got underway in a force two to three with most of the favourites sailing up the left side of the course. Steve McDowell (NZL) led round the first mark followed by Roger Blasse (AUS), Greg Wilcox (NZL) and Nick Craig (GBR). The left was favoured again on the second beat with Craig and Wilcox pulling ahead and building a gap on the fleet. Craig briefly moved into the lead on the run but round the last leeward mark Wilcox tacked for the left again while Craig covered the majority up the middle. Wilcox proved right and won the race by some 20 seconds from Craig and Blasse. The final beat saw a 30 degree shift to the left, leaving many boats on the right and middle counting more boats than expected.

After being DSQ by the jury for hitting a mark yesterday and picking up an OCS in the second race today, Jon Fish (GBR) is still celebrating his win at last night’s unofficial ‘OK World Match Racing Championship’, sailed in the enclosed waters off the school where the regatta has been hosted and just across from the Harboe brewery which has kindly sponsored the OK Worlds and generously provided the match racing prize of half the winner’s body weight in beer. Four windward-leeward races were sailed with two countries eliminated at each round. The final saw Fish against Janusz Stobinski (POL), with Fish inflicting two penalities before the start. However it was all over by the first leeward as the Pole capsized to leave Fish the proud winner of over 120 cans of Harbroe beer, a small consolation.

Race six was sailed in similar conditions to race five, with the wind continually flicking left and several corner bangers making massive gains. Craig started mid line and came out on the first shift to lead up the middle. He rounded the top mark just ahead of Jonus Quist (SWE) and Wilcox. At the bottom mark Quist was right behind Craig and these two sailed to the left while Wilcox caught up some distance finding pressure to the right. On the run Quist again showed devastating speed to close right up on Craig and the two became inseparable up the final beat.

Locked in a tack for tack battle, Craig never let up, but Wilcox, allowed to sail his own race, went right, although he initially looked in a poor position,100 metres down on the leaders. However a last minute shift from the right brought him back between Craig and Quist to tack for the line and win his second race of the day by less than half a boatlength.

Before this regatta, Wilcox had only ever won one OK World Championship race, and that was the clinching race in the 2002 World Championship, which won him the world title. This week, Wilcox has already notched up three race wins, and is ready for more. He said, “After the race win in Napier three years ago, this is the best day’s racing I have ever had. You can’t ask for better than winning two World Championship races on the same day.”

Taking about the racing so far he continues, “However, it’s like a minefield out there with holes and shifts and pressure coming in from all directions. But I think I’m doing well because I am being allowed to sail my own race and haven’t got sucked into playing games with other boats. Nick is proving very consistent with top three every race so far which is incredible in conditions like these.”

With six races down, there are still four to go and in the challenging winds off Skælskør Fjord, there is still a long way to go.

Results:

Pos	Sail Number	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot
1	GBR 2116	NickCraig	1	-3	3	1	2	2	9,0
2	SWE 2762	Jonas Quist	4	(bfd)	1	2	8	3	18,0
3	NZL 522	Greg Wilcox	-16	1	8	12	1	1	23,0
4	AUS 678	Roger Blasse	3	6	6	-11	3	10	28,0
5	DEN 1335	Mogens Johansen	5	4	15	10	-34	7	41,0
6	DEN 1280	Jørgen Lindhardtsen	7	18	12	3	-43	6	46,0
7	NZL 525	Steve McDowell	2	17	18	-23	6	4	47,0
8	GER 693	Martin Von Zimmermann	15	8	9	5	-16	12	49,0
9	DEN 1302	Ulf Brandt	8	12	25	8	5	-30	58,0
10	DEN 1344	Peter Wibro	19	-25	22	9	11	8	69,0
11	POL 14	Pawel Pawlaczyk	12	5	19	21	-32	15	72,0
12	GER 717	Oliver Gronholz	-24	23	2	17	22	13	77,0
13	NZL 521	Mark Perrow	10	16	-44	16	10	25	77,0
14	SWE 2741	Thomas Hansson-Mild	14	15	11	19	20	-29	79,0
15	NZL 472	Alistair Deaves	28	11	27	-35	9	5	80,0
16	SWE 99	Hans Elkjaer	11	27	21	4	25	-41	88,0
17	GER 672	Gunter Arndt	22	(bfd)	14	28	21	11	96,0
18	DEN 1330	Troels Lykke	-35	7	33	14	14	31	99,0
19	DEN 1345	Frank Hansen	6	19	16	24	37	-40	102,0
20	SWE 2750	Jonas Lindahl	29	20	26	15	13	-39	103,0