Great Britain wins Gold at IOM worlds

Trevor Binks sailing for GBR wins gold medal at the World Championships Regatta in the IOM Class, held at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, Vancouver Canada from the 5th –11th June. Sponsored by GM Dueck, the Bi-annual Championships was contested by 82 competitors from all over the World. Australia picked up the silver and bronze.

Trevor Binks who comes from Eastbourne in Sussex was well placed throughout the 22 race series held in English Bay off the coast of Vancouver however it was not until the final race that had Craig Smith from Australia one point in the lead that victory struck. The wind was very light and the tide running at its strongest seen during the event. The lead changed several times with wind ‘streams’ favoring both skippers at different times, however it was on the final run down to the Lee mark that Trevor pulled away and crossed the line in 12th place leaving Craig Smith in 18th that the Gold Medal was secured.

Ken Binks, Trevor’s elder brother was in bronze medal position until weed on the pen-ultimate race slowed progress and took him to seventh place. The Host Nation’s top skipper, Peter Van Rossem came 8th. But it was old adversaries GBR and Australia that occupied most of the top ten places GBR (3) and AUS (4) Croatia’s Ante Kovacevic in 5th and New Zealand’s Geoff Smale in 9th. Martin Roberts (GBR) the previous World Champion was in joint 6th position with Ken Binks separated on ‘count back’ using number of ‘firsts’ in the 22 race series. The World Championships was organized under the ISAF RSD ‘umbrella’ and was without doubt the best organized since the IOM class inception in 1988. The Royal Vancouver Yacht Club is to be congratulated for a superb event.

Full results at: www.royalvan.com/sites/iom/iom_wc_results_June11_regatta_final_web.pdf