SKANDIA SAIL FOR GOLD WEEK WEYMOUTH 2011

At the end of day two of Skandia Sail for Gold Week Peter O’Leary and David Burrows are lying in 10th position overall.  The event opened yesterday (Monday) to a rather shambolic start due to the vagaries of the wind that caused huge headaches for the various race committees and to add to the woes the live tracking that was supposed to cover the Finns and Stars couldn’t operate due to rundown batteries.  All in all very frustrating particularly in view of the fact that there was very good wind during the day but it was particularly fickle out in the race areas where the Stars and Finns were to race and the Race Officers found it extremely difficult to get the courses laid and had a lot of trouble with bias on the pin end of the line.

The Star Class were due to commence racing at 11am but had to wait until 3pm before being called to the race area and, having got there, they then had to wait until 5.40pm before getting a start to their first race.  Some of the other fleets managed to get in some racing during the day but the Finn Class and the Stars were indeed unlucky and one can only imagine the exhaustion and tension they must have been feeling before they could get a start at the end of the day.

However, when the Star race finally started the fleet split up with a lot of the boats taking one side of the course and a smaller number on the other side that included O’Leary and Burrows.  This group made the correct choice powering away from the others and maintaining the momentum right to the finish with O’Leary and Burrows having a tremendous fourth place result.  However, as results were only posted officially for the class this morning publication was not possible.

Today two races were run and a lot of the results were turned upside down with some of the top world names that were down the can yesterday returning to the top end of the fleet.  British gold medalist Iain Percy is reported to have made a rueful comment that he had made a schoolboy mistake yesterday resulting in a 22nd placing but with a 4th and 11th to day he is now on 37 points in 12th position. In race 2 of the series O’Leary and Burrows finished in 22nd place followed by a good 9th in race 3 leaving them with 35 points and 10th position overall before any discard.  The other Irish pairing of Maxwell Treacy and Anthony Shanks are lying in 36th place on 102 points.

Racing continues tomorrow (Wed.)  Results HERE