No surprises

Richard Stenhouse leads after the first day of the Musto Skiff World Championships in Silvaplanna

Day one of the Ricoh sponsored Musto Performance Skiff World Championships run by Segel Club St. Moritz was held in 13-19 knots of the classic Maloja wind on Silvaplana, Switzerland.

All three scheduled races started on time after a memorable opening ceremony organised by the club with local Swiss singing and accompanying music

Left initially then right centre of the upwind leg appeared to pay on race one, and Graeme Oliver from Whitstable Yacht Club held the lead for the majority of the race, only to be overtaken on the final beat by Richard Stenhouse (Rutland Water Sailing Club) and eventual winner Roger Oswald.

Following promptly on from the first race, race two was dominated by Richard Stenhouse, who rounded the windward mark in the lead, and progressively pulled clear to win from Graeme Oliver, as with race one and three, the fleet were close together, and great racing was had throughout the fleet, keeping shoreside spectators entertanined as the winward mark was only 100m from the beach. "Once I'd stopped looking at the scenery and started looking at the wind bends all went to plan. I should have won the first one but lost my bottle and missed a shift. Moral of the story is; Roger knows where he's going,"Oliver commented later.

Richard Stenhouse again showed excellent speed and tactical awareness to win from race one winner Roger Oswald and Spain's Pablo Arandia (Club Nautico Denia) in thie third and final race of the day. A worthy mention on the opening day must go to Tom Wright (Rutland Water Sailing Club) who dominated the youth fleet. Jerry Wales also showed good form to lead the Grand Masters both giving the front runners a real run for their money.