J/24 World Championship at Annapolis Yacht Club - Overall

Blue skies and strong breezes greeted us the day after the end of these Championships, the final irony of a difficult week at the United States Capital of Sailing. Like Cowes, the perennial claimant to the British equivalent, Annapolis proved a fickle and unpredictable venue for the 2009 J/24 World Championships. A tough challenge for the excellent race officer, as much as for the teams on the water, with unreliable breezes and strong watershed currents that – according to the locals – characterise Chesapeake Bay at this time of the year.

With only four races completed by Thursday evening, the race management team faced an unenviable challenge of starting three races on Friday, before the 2.30 pm deadline. Cool heads were called for and a 6-10 knot southerly breeze kicked in a little earlier than predicted, rewarding those on the water with three good races.

Overnight leader and 2008 World Champion Andrea Casale of Italy found the light air slows that dogged many of the fleet when the wind was soft. His challenge evaporated with the second of two final day mid-fleet finishes. Race five introduced a discard to the series and top three placings for 1996 winner Chris Larson and Argentine Matias Pereira launched both of them into the top four, where they were joined by Brazilian double World Champion Mauricio Santa Cruz, despite an unpromising 16th place. Canadian-Bulgarian, Rossi Milev took the lead with a 12th.

In Race 6, battle was truly joined and these boats occupied four of the top five places, setting up a big finale, with only 6 points between fourth placed Pereira and leader Larson. With the top four otherwise engaged, it was the turn of local helm David Bonney to end his week on a high with a win in race 7 – let’s hope it wasn’t soured too much by the technical infringement that brought with it a 20% penalty. 2005 Weymouth Champion, the ever smiling Anthony Kotoun took second place to give him fifth position overall. Third place lifted Santa Cruz to first overall and Larson’s 11th gave him second place. Rossi Milev took third spot, to go with his second place from last year, with Pereira in fourth. Santa Cruz is now halfway to Ken Read’s record six wins. More significantly, he is the first overseas visitor to a US-hosted World Championships to go away with the title.

Ian Southworth’s promising win in Race One gave a temporary boost to hopes of a first British win in the event, but Ian commented that he found boatspeed a problem in the lighter airs that dogged the week. Lower down the rankings, racing was just as tough as at the front, with no quarter asked or given. The best of boats found it hard to climb back up the fleet. British sailor Nick McDonald, who travelled with a scratch crew – including myself and Damian Thomson from the UK; Barbara Gold and Paul Stanford from the US – probably gained as much satisfaction from a fighting 45th in the final race as any one of the seven different race winners did from their own individual successes.

Overall Results: (7 races, 1 discard)