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GJW Direct 2024 Dinghy

Cadet World Championship at Bodstedt, Germany - Day 3

by Neil Collingridge 1 Aug 2018 14:37 BST 29 July - 3 August 2018
2018 International Cadet World Championships day 3 © Cadet Worlds 2018

First up an apology for the late publishing of this report (questions have been asked) - some say it's because the results page on the website is down temporarily, but we call it the British Night Pimms Party.

On to Tuesday and the Brits are the first team to launch down Bodstedt's rather challenging slipway. Out on the course there's looking to be a decent breeze of maybe 10 knots to kick off with. Charlotte Videlo and Tom Shepherd are leading the Brits in fourth with a very consistent set of results having gained a place overnight due to a Ukrainian picking up a DSQ and Angus Collingridge and Ed Fletcher are holding ninth despite rather less consistent scoring....further down the list there are clearly many places to be gained and lost as predictions of a high scoring regatta look well founded. Again its hot hot hot so sun cream all round and support ribs handing over iced water bottles whenever they can.

Our own RIB is somewhat distracted by last minute phone calls from Stansted Airport where Ryanair have cancelled the morning's flight to Aarhus causing a bunch of the British Sailing Team to need to find alternative routes.....so having rebooked from the RIB one of our daughters onto the next day's flight to Hamburg (well it's at least the right side of the North Sea and on British Airways air miles) we pretty much looked up for the first time to see the World fleet making their start.

No matter, fleet all early, pin totally obscured even from where we are sitting to windward of and outside the committee boat so its AP up in the last minute whilst they reset the bias.....except they don't reset the bias. Then on the restart it goes extremely light in the last 30 seconds and shifts yet further to the left; massive scrum at the pin and then 15 seconds after the start the wind goes back to the right so that boats who've got themselves to the right place find they're being rolled by dozens getting lifted inside them.

Some surprise that the start isn't recalled especially as the wind then fills in back from the left to produce a horribly lopsided racetrack where overtaking opportunities have become all but not existent. Charlotte and Tom continue their consistency to finish the race with a 9th, Connor and Toby also scoring in the teens but overall not one of the better races for the Brits.

Did I mention by the way that the Aussie nicknamed last year as Promo Pete - he's now in the World Fleet and doing rather well as it happens? (I promised his mum over the Nth glass of Pimms that I'd give him a gratuitous namecheck - done).

Which takes us nicely back over Planet Promo where its all getting quite tight at the top as the leading Brits Phoebe and Mimi and Katie and Dom have reeled in the Pole and are now top of the table.

Their race 6 does indeed get abandoned at the windward mark due to the left hander. On the reset start Katie and Dom are flying yet again - first round the windward with a Belgian and German giving chase round the outer loop. Cally and Hettie are in pursuit too as are Ethan and Alex, Phoebe and Mimi and Kate and Rhona. GBR boats move through the front of the fleet as the race unwinds and at the finish Katie takes the win with Cally second and the Pole third.

The breeze is up now and it's time for the Worlds fleet to try the inner loop to keep away from the Promos. A rather more encouraging race for GBR AS charlotte rounds the top fifth from Angus seventh and Faye and Connor both in the teens and generally the British boats faring well in the breeze - certainly none struggling in the back half of the fleet. After a bit of a GBR dingdong Charlotte finishes fourth to Angus' fifth with Connor in seventeenth. Teo Zecchin, the Argentinian who lost the Worlds on countback last year after a moment of madness by one of his team mates in the last race gifted the win to the Pole has scored another 1st to consolidate his position on top of the leaderboard - at this stage he's looking pretty solid although as he well knows anything can happen.

Promo race 7: still pin end bias (I'd be willing to bet at this point there's not a single race where it pays to start at the Committee Boat - perhaps a cheaper and less shiny committee boat would permit a squarer line). Still Katie and Dom bossing the fleet - out they pop at the pin and within moments they are off and clear. A humongous lead at the windward mark sees them fly down the tight top reach to extend and never be caught. That's their fourth race win in the last five races. Phoebe and Mimi bag second yet again with Kate and Rhona rounding out the top five. For the promos that's it for the day which was a shame as the wind was pretty decent and Wednesday is a lay day (by the way as I type this on Wednesday morning we've the best wind of the week - it was ever thus).

For the Worlds they do get race 8 in and its encouraging for Britain again. Pin bias, Angus spat out, gybes round and looks horrible, but Hazel and Gwen lead round the windward from Lia and Mish with Charlotte and Tom in fourth. There's an Aussie and a different Argie also in the mix at the top of the fleet but Lia takes over at the front and leads all the way up the second beat extending a little as she goes and still leading down the top reach.

On the run she's getting blanketed by the Argie and struggles to keep clear wind and the Aussies rather frustratingly sail through her lee into the lead by the bottom. Up the final mini beat its very close indeed - she's had a bit of a better mark rounding to get slightly to weather so as the Aussie tacks she goes too and is bow forward - if she can lay the line she will take it but Sod's Law being as it is the wind heads not lifts and so not only is she held out by the Aussie but the Argie who's continued further before taking gets lifted on port then lifted on starboard to the finish. Nevertheless third for Lia and Mish, Charlotte and Tom again up there with fourth, Connor and Toby onefifth and Angus and Ed sixteenth - quite a recovery from being dead and buried in the high 30s maybe even 40s at the first windward...if anyone doubted the benefit of not sailing a banana down the run!

So that's it for the day. On Planet Promo (remember there are 53 boats and its a very competitive fleet in its own right) GBR hold four of the top five slots. Phoebe and Mimi lead just still from Katie and Dom but it's as tight as it ever is in the Promos and there all to play for with two days left.

In the Worlds fleet, Teo has a comfortable lead and even his discard isn't a tragic result. Thibault the Belgian holds second with another Argentinian Julian Finsterbusch third and Charlotte and Tom still uber-consistent in fourth overall.

A layday to recover from the Pimms and we will be back for four more races on Thursday and Friday.

Results can be found at:

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