OKs at Warnemünder Woche

Nick Craig wins without a single first

Without winning a race, Nick Craig (GBR) won Warnemünder Woche in the OK Dinghy adding the win to the Medemblik Spring Cup and Kieler Woche to dominate the International OK scene so far in 2005. Going down to the last race, Craig’s second place was enough to move ahead of the series leader from day one, Greg Wilcox (NZL), who could only manage a fifth to finish in the runner up slot.

The regatta opened on Friday 8th July in light and sometimes quite variable winds. Martin von Zimmerman (GER) got away in race one to score the first of a consistent series while Wilcox started an excellent day with a second after taking 15 places on the final offwind legs of the inner loop trapezoid course. Wilcox rounded up the day with two emphatic wins in the very tricky conditions. Craig recovered from a mediocre fifth in race one to score two seconds. Occasional race leader Jörgen Lindhardtsen (DEN) suffered from the vagaries of the wind to dramatically drop out of the top three in two races to post a 20-4-12 scoreline for the day.

Saturday’s racing was the traditional and expected conditions that sailors travel to Warnemünder for, big waves and solid winds up to force five. The left side was consistently the way to go and Oliver Gronholtz found the right track to lead throughout with Lindhardtsen second and Craig third. Lindhardtsen, who turns 60 this year, then revelled in the fantastic sailing conditions in race five to hold off Craig to win. Wilcox’s overnight lead had diminished to two points after placing seventh and third.

With all to play for on the last day, Nick Craig set the pace in the light but strengthening breeze although Thomas Glas (GER) overtook briefly on the run. Wilcox was back in eigth. Craig led until the final offwind legs when Johansen Mogens (DEN) showed exceptional offwind pace to take the lead and extend it to win comfortably. Craig held onto second, which was just enough, with Wilcox unable to climb higher than fifth, to take the event by one point.

Next weekend the fleet moves on to Bisserup in Denmark for the Danish Nationals before the World Championships in Skaelskør the week after.

Results:

1 GBR 2116 Nick Craig, (5) 2 2 3 2 2, 11
2 NZL 522 Greg Wilcox, 2 1 1 (7) 3 5, 12
3 GER 693 Martin v.Zimmermann, 1 (12) 3 4 4 7, 19
4 DEN 1335 Johansen Mogens, 4 7 5 6 (11) 1, 23
5 DEN 1280 Jorgen Lindhardtsen, (20) 4 12 2 1 6, 25
6 GER 690 Sönke Behrens, 8 5 4 (16) 7 13, 37
7 GER 717 Oliver Gronholz, 9 (22) 7 1 5 16, 38
8 DEN 1 Frank Hansen, (15) 8 6 10 6 9, 39
9 GER 624 Thomas Glas, 7 (17) 9 9 14 3, 42
10 GER 424 Rainer Rehbehn, 11 3 8 (14) 10 11, 43