Payne pulls ahead

European champion scores another bullet at the Moth Worlds

Following a night of thunderstorms the race officer held the fleet for a couple of hours today until it settled in the right direction. In a building breeze race 7 started with Payne striking the beat just right and leading around the windward mark. Robinson of Singapore was second, then May, Belben and Veal.

As the wind built Payne maintained his lead and the places swapped behind him. Veal eventually came through to take second with Robinson hanging on to third place and May fourth. Payne win restored the points balance and after seven races Payne and Veal were now effectively tied.

Race eight started in only about 6/7 knots of breeze, and it was Payne who managed to get foiling off the start line to lead round the windward mark by quite a margin from Sven Kloppenburg from Germany, and Robinson. In the lighter pressure the decision to go for foils, or stay lowriding was a tricky one, and the remaining fleet was closely bunched. The usual suspects soon pulled through, and with more pressure on the second lap it was Payne leading comfortably from Robinson, Belben, Veal and May. On the final beat with it getting late in the day the pressure started to drop, and May managed to continue foiling long enough to get into third behind Robinson at the windward mark. Keeping it in the air along the reach he then moved into second before the wind died, leaving the fleet in lowriding mode for the final few legs. Payne won by 17 minutes as everyone else drifted home. May finished second, from Belben, Robinson and Veal.

Going into the last two races, it is a showdown between Payne and Veal for the title.

Results:

Pos	Sail no	Skipper	Subgroup	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Tot
1	GBR4076	Simon Payne	Foil & Master	3	1	2	1	-4	1	1	1	10
2	AUS9345	Rohan Veal	Foil	1	4	1	2	1	2	2	-5	13
3	GBR4073	Adam May	Foil	2	2	3	-4	3	3	4	2	19
4	GBR4069	Jason Belben	Foil & Master	5	3	5	3	2	5	(33\OCS)	3	26
5	SIN7	Mark Robinson	Foil	6	6	6	-8	6	4	3	4	35
6	GBR4080	Sam Pascoe	Foil	4	5	4	5	5	6	(33\OCS)	9	38
7	GBR4082	Alex Adams	Foil	7	7	7	7	-8	7	6	8	49
8	AUS9347	John Ilett	Foil	8	9	9	-16	7	8	5	11	57
9	SUI607	Patrick Ruf	Foil	10	12	-14	9	10	9	9	6	65
10	GBR4079	Alex Knight	Foil	9	8	11	10	12	14	7	-20	71
11	GBR4050	Ian Forksdike	Foil	11	10	8	13	(33\DNS)	10	8	12	72
12	GER1052	Burkhard Staabs	Foil & Master	15	15	12	15	9	12	13	(33\DNS)	91
13	GBR4085	Simon Propper	Foil & Master	14	13	15	19	14	15	10	-25	100
14	AUS9279	Zac Douglas	Foil & Junior	12	16	-26	18	11	13	12	22	104
15	GBR4067	Adrian Murphy	Foil	18	11	17	-25	18	16	14	17	111
16	GBR4046	Russell Wheeler	No Foil	19	-20	19	14	20	18	16	10	116
17	GER1040	Sven Kloppenburg	Foil & Master	13	(33\DNS)	10	6	33\DNS	33\DNS	15	7	117
18	AUS81	James Robert mackenzie	Foil	20	14	16	22	17	11	(33\OCS)	18	118
19	FRA2016	BESSEC Nicolas	Foil	-29	19	13	28	15	19	11	27\DNF	132
20	ITA253	Franco Ferluga	Foil	17	17	18	-27	19	20	18	23	132
21	GER1044	Joachim Hülsmeyer	No Foil & Master	21	22	-25	17	21	22	21	13	137
22	GER1049	Dirk Koepe	Foil	16	31\DNF	22	11	16	17	(33\DNS)	33\DNS	146
23	GER1008	Leo Arnoldt	No Foil & Junior	-24	21	20	21	24	23	23	15	147
24	GER1026	Jens Schoenberg	No Foil	22	23	-27	20	25	26	22	16	154
25	DEN101	Søren Buhl	No Foil	-25	25	21	23	23	24	20	19	155
26	NED164	Richard Knol	Foil & Master	-28	24	28	26	22	27	19	14	160
27	GBR4019	Doug Culnane	Foil	23	18	23	12	(33\DNS)	25	28\DNF	33\DNS	162
28	GER1054	Jens Zurmühl	Foil	26	27	32\DNF	(33\DNS)	13	21	17	33\DNS	169
29	GBR4077	Peter Horn	Foil	(33\DNS)	28	24	30	28\DNF	28	25	21	184
30	GER1032	Nils Warnken	No Foil	27	26	29	24	26	29	24	(33\DNS)	185
31	DEN100	Jan A.Drost	No Foil & Master	30	29	30	29	(33\DNS)	33\DNS	26	24	201
32	GER1011	Wolfram Hettkamp	No Foil & Master	(33\DNS)	33\DNS	33\DNS	33\DNS	33\DNS	33\DNS	33\DNS	33\DNS	231