OK Worlds Championships at Wellington, New Zealand - Day 1
by Mandy Burt 6 Feb 2010 08:47 GMT
6-12 February 2010
Day 1 at the OK World Championships © Chris Coad
The first day of the 2010 OK Dinghy championships started with a cloudless sky and variable 5 knot northerly on the harbour. 70 sailors left the boat park and then ‘hung around’ for a few hours as they waited for the wind to settle in.
After shifting to course 2 the first race of the OK Dinghy World Championship was under away in around 12kts of breeze. The fleet was well spread on either side of the track.
Ben Morrison from NZ led at the first mark of the first race. Michael Williams from Australia rounded in 2nd place followed by Jono Fish from Great Britain. New Zealanders Russell Page Wood and Daniel Bush rounded out the top five. Second time around Ben Morrison was still in the lead at the top mark with reigning World Champ, Thomas Hansson-Mild moving into second place. Russell Page Wood followed in third with Steven McDowell and Michael Williams rounding out the top five.
Ben Morrison was the winner of Race 1 in the 2010 World OK Dinghy championship. Russell Page-Wood sailed through to take second overall with Paul Rhodes taking out third. Champion Thomas Hansson-Mild came in fourth with Steve McDowell in fifth. All places provisional at this time.
The race committee then reconfigured the track for Race 2 with the wind settling in around 15 knots from the north.
First round the top mark for Race 2 was Paul Rhodes from club mate Karl Purdie with Australian, Michael Williams in third. Russell Page Wood was in fourth while Brad Douglas was in fifth.
Paul Rhodes provisionally won race 2 from Michael Williams of Australia. Young Wellington sailor Matthew Steven took out third place followed by Karl Purdie. Fifth was too close to call between Russell Page Wood and Andrew Pardington of Waketere.
70 boats began Race 1 of the OK World Championships in Wellington and 69 finished. 68 boats started Race 2 and 66 finished.
At the end of the day Dragon Boat racing, with 14-18 on each boat, provided the evening’s entertainment with the Europeans winning the first and Australians winning the second.
Full results can be found on the homepage of the OK Worlds website, where regular updates will be posted during the course of racing.