Josh McKnight takes the lead

After a tricky Lake Garda day at the Zhik Moth World Championships

Saturday August 25th 2012, Author: James Boyd, Location: Italy

To say that Saturday's racing at the 2012 Zhik Nautica Moth World Championship was a tricky one and full of surprises and upsets would be the week's biggest understatement.

The first and most decisive race of the day, turned the tables and saw some of the leaders with scores in the teens, twenties or even thirties! It is clear that consistency and making the least errors are the keys in this regatta and that's exactly what McKnight has shown all week.

With overcast skies and lower temperatures Lake Garda's afternoon wind, Ora, wasn't as steady as in the previous days, especially with a start one hour earlier than on Friday. The right side of the course, as close to the rocks as possible, has paid handsomely throughout this week, but this was the one and only race where it wouldn't. The left turned out to be so favoured that Brad Funk, the US sailor that saw it coming, ended up ahead by a mile. When the trailing boats on the right saw it and went left, the breeze died and turned right. Some of the top ten sailors – Babbage, Kotoun, Salter and McDougall – got the double whammy 'right when it's left and left when it's right', rounding the first top mark towards the bottom of the fleet. Babbage managed to climb up to 16th, but McKnight had yet another consistent race, finishing fourth.

As the breeze got fresher and steadier, the second race was more about boat speed, as Anthony Kotoun stated. The sailor from the US Virgin Islands nailed his start, got off to the rocks and was able to build an immense lead at the first top mark. Bora Gulari couldn't do anything to catch up with Kotoun and crossed the finish line in second place, ahead of Julian Salter and Joshua McKnight - a major turnaround for Kotoun after coming home 33rd in the previous race.

The final race was again a demonstration of flawless sailing by Josh McKnight. He got the start right with full pace and rounded the first weather mark in second place, trailing Julian Salter. McKnight has shown his strength upwind all week and overtook Salter on the second beat. Once again, Kotoun kept his calm, weaved through the fleet and bagged another second place.

"Scott is still the favorite to win this regatta, I'm just trying to sail well and get some solid results," said McKnight after racing. "My aim is to be at the top five in each race and I've been working hard to achieve that. At the first top mark of the first race I was probably 7th or 8th or even deeper but since it was quite choppy quite a few around me fell in the first downwind. I sailed more conservatively and finished the race in second place.”

Scott Babbage posted a 16-5-4 today, and now trails McKnight by two points, but is eight ahead of third-placed Kotoun.

"“In the first race I didn't get off the start line well," Babbage recalled. "Then the breeze went really light at the top mark and I was just on the layline with lots of boats. I couldn't get around the top foiling, so I was deep in the pack, without really many opportunities to get through the fleet. So, I had a really bad one and then probably a fifth and another fifth. Joshua might have passed me in the leaderboard with his three good results.”

The 2012 Zhik Nautica Moth Worlds will come to an end tomorrow Sunday after the three final races are sailed. A violent storm is forecast on Lake Garda on Saturday night that could result in a strong Pelèr (northerly breeze) on Sunday morning and an extremely light Ora in the afternoon. As a result, the Race Committee has decided to bring the start time forward to 1000.

2012 Zhik Nautica Moth World Championships - full Gold fleet results:

Pos	Nat	Helm	Qrank	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot	Net
1	AUS	Josh McKnight	2	2	-4	1	2	4	1	16	12
2	AUS	Scott Babbage	1	1	1	2	-16	5	4	30	14
3	ISV	Anthony Kotoun	4	3	2	10	-33	1	2	55	22
4	USA	Bora Gulari	3	5	-11	3	8	2	8	40	29
5	AUS	Julian Salter	8	9	6	7	-38	3	7	78	40
6	USA	Brad Funk	18	6	-10	4	1	8	5	52	42
7	AUS	Rob Gough	12	4	3	5	-11	10	10	55	44
8	AUS	Andrew McDougall	7	7	12	8	7	-34	3	78	44
9	USA	Eric Aakhus	17	8	-15	6	10	6	11	73	58
10	GBR	Chris Rashley	5	12	9	11	13	9	(61.0 DSQ)	120	59
11	GBR	Jason Paul Belben	9	13	5	-22	3	18	15	85	63
12	GBR	Simon Payne	11	-31	16	12	4	11	14	99	68
13	AUS	John Harris	26	18	7	14	-19	17	12	113	94
14	ITA	Francesco Bianchi	10	15	(61.0 DNC)	19	12	29	13	159	98
15	AUS	James Edward Dorron	30	10	8	9	23	23	-24	127	103
16	GBR	Tom Offer	15	16	22	23	-53	25	17	171	118
17	GBR	Michael Lennon	16	-32	29	20	20	26	9	152	120
18	USA	George Peet	43	-24	13	21	17	14	15.5 RDG	147.5	123.5
19	GBR	Ricky Tagg	22	30	25	-38	22	16	20	173	135
20	GBR	Ben Paton	24	21	17	28	(61.0 DNC)	21	26	198	137
21	GBR	Peter Barton	27	20	31	16	18	-50	28	190	140
22	GBR	James Phare	59	14	14	13	-26	19	23	168	142
23	AUS	Turner Joe Mothman	6	(61.0 DNC)	61.0 DNC	61.0 DNC	5	7	6	207	146
24	AUS	Warren Sare	23	29	-44	36	31	13	16	192	148
25	GBR	Robert Greenhalgh	14	-43	20	26	28	31	31	193	150
26	GBR	Andrew Friend	31	33	28	24	14	22	-41	193	152
27	SUI	Renker Matthias	32	27	-37	33	30	12	19	190	153
28	NED	Eelco Boers	25	-55	18	15	27	43	25	208	153
29	ESP	Pablo Arandia	21	35	26	(61.0 DNF)	24	30	18	215	154
30	ITA	Peter Stuffer	39	-45	19	18	29	27	29	206	161
31	GBR	Richard Westbury	37	38	-46	31	6	15	35	208	162
32	AUS	Phillip Kurts	19	17	34	32	37	-38	27	204	166
33	ITA	Harald Stuffer	35	25	27	29	15	39	-42	212	170
34	NZL	Matt Vincent	13	11	23	45	-49	48	44	233	184
35	GBR	Gareth John Davies	33	26	38	27	-47	28	36	235	188
36	USA	Matt Knowles	44	23	35	25	32	-36	30	225	189
37	ITA	Enrico Fonda	38	37	41	37	-58	20	22	253	195
38	GBR	Mike Cooke	20	49	24	30	44	-57	37	261	204
39	AUS	Jack Riley Sherring	29	28	32	52	25	46	-53	265	212
40	SUI	Philip Käsermann	56	22	21	39	-48	40	40	266	218
41	NZL	Jason Russell	41	44	30	35	-46	37	33	266	220
42	GBR	Olivier Vidal	36	(61.0 DNC)	61.0 DNC	17	54	24	34	287	226
43	SUI	Alessandro Fuchs	46	48	42	-54	9	51	32	282	228
44	SWE	Martin Grävare	60	34	40	-43	21	41	39	278	235
45	AUS	Kohei Kajimoto	34	(61.0 DNC)	39	51	39	42	38	304	243
46	SUI	Psarofaghis Mikis	42	-54	47	50	36	33	43	305	251
47	ITA	Marco Lanulfi	54	-50	33	34	43	49	45	308	258
48	SUI	Fabien Froesch	28	39	(61.0 DNC)	61.0 DNC	40	45	48	322	261
49	ITA	Stefano Rizzi	40	19	49	53	-55	55	49	320	265
50	ITA	Gianmaria Ferrighi	52	36	48	48	-51	35	47	317	266
51	AUS	Mark Robinson	55	41	36	41	50	-52	46	321	269
52	AUS	Ben Newling	45	47	45	40	42	54	-56	329	273
53	ITA	Pietro Sibello	47	46	53	46	52	32	(61.0 DNC)	337	276
54	GER	Frederik Schmid	50	(61.0 DNC)	43	42	35	56	52	339	278
55	GER	Sven Kloppenburg	57	40	51	47	34	-58	55	342	284
56	ITA	Fabio Mazzetti	49	52	52	44	-56	44	54	351	295
57	FRA	Andrillon Yann	58	51	54	-55	45	47	51	361	306
58	SWE	Emma Aspington	53	42	50	49	(61.0 DNC)	61.0 DNC	61.0 DNC	377	316
59	ITA	Stefano Ferrighi	48	53	(61.0 DNC)	61.0 DNC	57	53	50	383	322
60	GBR	Simon Hiscocks	51	(61.0 DNC)	61.0 DNC	61.0 DNC	41	61.0 DNC	61.0 DNC	397	336