A tricky start

Robert Deaves reports on the opening day of the OK World Championships

The 2005 OK Dinghy World Championship opened in Skælskør in Denmark today with two testing races in a range of conditions and frequent use of the black flag. Overnight leader Nick Craig (GBR) described the day as "very,very tricky" with a strong current flowing up the course causing a large number of general recalls and the many windshifts causing postponments while the course was reset.

Sunday’s pactice race was sailed in all together different conditions. Only 17 boats finished the long course with most of the leaders dropping out before the finish. The windy and rough conditions proved ideal for Ulf Brandt (DEN) who won from Greg Wilcox (NZL) and Roger Blasse (AUS).

With the imposing eastern section of the Storebælt Bridge dominating the horizon to the north, the race area was set in the Agerso Sund, between the island of Egholm and Skælskør Fjord.

Today, the morning conditions were more sedate with a gentle 6 knots blowing and scatterd showers which reduced visibility. However the fleet had to wait for well over an hour before getting away for the first start after a number of general recalls and several changes in wind direction. When the fleet finally started the wind had increased to a good Force 3-4. Five boats were black flagged including Andre Blasse (AUS) who had scored a pair of them before the day was out.

The port biased start line proved very tricky with Jon Fish (GBR) coming out from the pin with speed to lead round the top mark. The strong current favoured those on the left and Fish led from Nick Craig (GBR) and Steve McDowell (NZL). Craig and McDowell moved passed Fish on the reaches, opened up a good lead and started a tacking duel on the next beat. McDowell was ahead at the final leeward mark but Craig realed him in to take the first win of the week. The chasing Pack was led by Roger Blasse (AUS) and Jonas Quist (SWE). Andre Blasse finished fifth but was scored BFD.

The second race of the day was started in less wind, again after a number of general recalls and changes in wind direction. Again the black flag had its victims, again Andre Blasse, but also Jonas Quist and two others. Also again there was a port biased line with a port tack biased beat. Mogens Johansen used his light weather boatspeed to great effect to round the top mark first ahead of Nick Craig and Steve McDowell. There followed two very long offwind legs against the current which saw large place changes as sailors misjudged it and were swept off the layline.

On the second beat the 2002 World Champion Greg Wilcox (NZL), who had moved up to third on the reaches, tacked off to the left first to find a 40 degree shift. Taking the lead he led to the finish followed by Johensen, Craig and Sonke Behrens (GER). However, on the final beat Behrens moved up to second to be followed by Craig and Johansen. Pawel Pawlaczyk (POL) sailed a good race to finish fifth while Roger Blasse got out of jail on the 40 degree shift to finished sixth.

After the long day at sea – the sailors were on the water for some seven and a half hours for just two races, Wilcox commented, “Today was hard, and one thing is for sure, this is going to be a high scoring regatta. However Danish hospitality is living up to expectations.” The sailors are all located at the local school with the boatpark on the grass in front of the rooms. Free beer is provided when coming ashore and the nice town of Skælskør is just a short walk down the road.

Two more races are scheduled for Tuesday.

			Scores	1	2
1	GBR 2116	NickCraig	4,0	1	3
2	AUS 678	Roger Blasse	9,0	3	6
3	DEN 1335	Mogens Johansen	9,0	5	4
4	NZL 522	Greg Wilcox	17,0	16	1
5	POL 14	Pawel Pawlaczyk	17,0	12	5
6	NZL 525	Steve McDowell	19,0	2	17
7	DEN 1302	Ulf Brandt	20,0	8	12
8	GER 693	Martin Von Zimmermann	23,0	15	8
9	DEN 1345	Frank Hansen	25,0	6	19
10	DEN 1280	Jørgen Lindhardtsen	25,0	7	18
11	NZL 521	Mark Perrow	26,0	10	16
12	SWE 2741	Thomas Hansson-Mild	29,0	14	15
13	GBR 2110	Jon Fish	31,0	9	22
14	SWE 99	Hans Elkjaer	38,0	11	27
15	NZL 472	Alistair Deaves	39,0	28	11
16	GBR 2082	John Ball	40,0	26	14
17	DEN 1330	Troels Lykke	42,0	35	7
18	GBR 2021	Alex Scoles	44,0	31	13
19	DEN 1344	Peter Wibro	44,0	19	25
20	DEN 1304	Christian Midtgård	46,0	17	29
21	GER 717	Oliver Gronholz	47,0	24	23
22	DEN 1340	Jesper Petersen	49,0	39	10
23	SWE 2750	Jonas Lindahl	49,0	29	20
24	AUS 723	Paul Richards	54,0	33	21
25	GER 726	Jörg Sylvester	57,0	27	30
26	GER 624	Thomas Glas	59,0	25	34
27	NZL 490	Trent Pryce	60,0	36	24
28	POL 61	Janusz Stobinski	62,0	20	42
29	DEN 1322	Ivan Pedersen	62,0	21	41
30	GER 690	Sönke Behrens	67,0	bfd	2
31	SWE 2762	Jonas Quist	69,0	4	bfd
32	GBR 2081	Robert Deaves	69,0	34	35
33	GER 632	Fabian Gronholz	71,0	23	48
34	NZL 518	Grant Pedersen	72,0	44	28
35	GER 707	Thorsten Schmidt	73,0	18	55
36	GER 607	Christian Heinze	73,0	42	31
37	GER 710	Christian Senst	74,0	bfd	9
38	GER 424	Rainer Rehbehn	74,0	30	44
39	NZL 508	Wayne Avery	75,0	49	26
40	SWE 2752	Ingemar Janson	77,0	32	45
41	DEN 1265	Bo Teglers	78,0	13	bfd
42	DEN 1324	Claus Deichgräber	79,0	40	39
43	POL 16	Marek Jarocki	80,0	48	32
44	GER 688	Dirk Dame	83,0	50	33
45	POL 127	Jakob Kania	85,0	45	40
46	GBR 2085	Gavin Waldron	86,0	37	49
47	GER 672	Gunter Arndt	87,0	22	bfd
48	AUS 706	Peter Nielsen	89,0	52	37
49	GER 695	Dirk Gericke	90,0	43	47
50	NZL 498	Darren Hunt	91,0	38	53
51	GER 665	Peter Stephan	92,0	54	38
52	NZL 515	Mike Wilde	93,0	41	52
53	DEN 1212	Jan Larsen	93,0	47	46
54	GER 720	Daniel Gröschl	97,0	46	51
55	SWE 2746	Olle Heimersson	98,0	55	43
56	BEL 214	Paul Verrijdt	101,0	dsq	36
57	SWE 2721	Bertil Eliasson	108,0	51	57
58	POL 24	Darek Kras	110,0	56	54
59	BEL 604	Mark Geboes	115,0	bfd	50
60	DEN 1317	Henrik Søgren	118,0	53	dsq
61	NZL 500	Philip Rzepecky	121,0	bfd	56
62	AUS 719	Andre Blasse	130,0	bfd	bfd
62	DEN 1303	John Skjoldby	130,0	dnc	dnc
62	GBR 2087	Juliane Burnham	130,0	dnc	dnc