John Morehead (IRL77) with his Cockatoo 8 and Andrew Crosbie (IRL132) with his Isis 2 will be flying the Irish colours at the Worlds this year. On behalf of the Irish fleet we wish you the best.

May the right shifts be with you.

 

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21st June (John :  29th, Andrew 48th)

Zvonko from Croatia is taking an early lead and 3 of his fellow compatriots following close behind. 2 French, 2 English and one American are making up the rest of the top 10.

 

22nd June (John : 32nd, Andrew : 45th)

The Croates are continuing to put the pressure with 4 skippers in the top 10. But Brad is showing he’s intention of retaining his title by taking the first place.  2 French and 2 English skippers are making the rest of the top 10.

 

23rd June (John : 38th, Andrew : 35th)

Don’t know what happened to John yet but Andrew is steadily climbing up and gained over 10 places in 3 days. At the top Brad and Zvenko are slowly pulling away from the rest creating a gap of over 10 points on the 3rd boat. But with only 1 point between them it couldn’t be closer.

 

24th June : Backup day - no racing today

From what I can make out it seems to be B rig all the way. Although a gentle breeze powers through the morning the wind establishes for mid-day delivering good B rig conditions, touching on C rig at times but skippers have been reluctant so far to pull their C rig out of their rig box. This may not last as the forecast for the remaining days of competition is for strong wind. Boat tuning, tactics and boat handling seem to be key to success as the shifty winds requires for each skipper to adapt their tactics quickly, change their tuning and stay clear of other boats while sailing fast.

 

I have received some news from our 2 skippers and the reason for John dropping in the ranking is a water leak which affected his electrics and as a result lost races and dropped in the heats.

 

25th June :

Easterly wind of 21 knots and 28 degrees Celsius are the conditions that greats the skippers today.

John is continuing to struggle with his electrics which is creating havoc due to some water infiltrations. This is really impeding on this racing performance and can only try to hold his current position. Andrew however is continuously progressing each day of the championships and he is climbing up through the ranking.

 

26th June :

It seems that there hasn’t been much change from yesterday with John battling with his electrics and Andrew continuing his progress. It is really enjoyable to see the race live on the web.

 

27th June : Final racing day

Well all good things have to come to an end and our 2 skippers made us proud. This is only their 2nd World Championships and 3rd international regatta.

 

Andrew Crosbie - IRL132 finished 23rd which is no small achievements in the IOM class where a lot of top sailors race in.

 

John Morehead - IRL77 who had an excellent start in 25th after day 1 with more potential to come got his progress altered when water infiltration got to his electrics and played havoc restricting his performance, finishing in 47th place which is still honorable considering his issues. John is our current national champion and he has always finish in the top 3 here at each races for the past year. No doubt he'll be disappointed with this result, doing the best with his electrical problems.

 

On behalf of the Irish IOM fleet we thank you to have represented us and show that though small in numbers we have a good level of racing and it should set us up well for the Europeans next year and the Worlds in 2011 in the UK.

 

A big thank you and well done for your performance.