A discarded result of 31 scored in race six yesterday has dropped Waterford Harbour's Rob McConnell sailing the Archambault A35 'Fools Gold' to 18th from 14th from a fleet of 49 in Class C of The Hague Offshore Sailing World Championships 2018. The Sovereign's Cup champion has a single race left to sail in an extremely competitive inaugural IRC/Offshore championships.
With yet another sunny day on the North Sea coast, and in a little gentler winds than in the last few days, another two inshore races were held in The Hague Offshore Sailing Worlds. The completion of the first race prompted a discard of the worst race score for all competitors, with the exception of the twice-weighted long offshore race. And as predicted, this action compressed and reshuffled the results in Classes B & C, making the race for the podium positions even tighter in these classes.
In Class A the outcome of this event was clear even with one remaining race left in the series: Karl Kwok's Pac 52 Beau Geste (HKG) is the new Class A Offshore World Champion. Barring any major irregularity found when they go through the measurement process tonight for which they might be protested and penalized, this team cannot be caught in the standings. Composed of mostly Kiwis with a mix of other nationalities led by project manager Gavin Brady, the new World Champions are Jim Baxter, Nick Blackman, David Brooke, Chris Cowen, Matt Humphries, Matt Kelway, Patrick Kong, David Lenz, Spencer Loxton, Rob Salthouse, Dave Swete and Jim Williamson.
It seems that even though they do not have to sail tomorrow since their discarded worst score is only the 1.5 points they shared with Outsider today in the first race, they will sail anyway just to have more time on the boat.
With a 13-point lead in a 9-boat class going into the final race, Outsider may have a similar lock on the Silver medal position on the podium at the awards tomorrow evening. So the real fight is for Bronze, with the Rotterdam Offshore Sailing Team's Ker 46 Van Uden (NED) led by skipper Gerd-Jan Poortman having a good day on scores of 3 and 3.5, while closest rival Hitchhiker (NED), the Carkeek 40 owned by Bas de Voogd, sailed their discard in the first race putting them 6 points back in the standings.
Almost like Beau Geste, Claus Landmark's Landmark 43 Santa (NOR) has led the series in Class B from the start and has a tiny 1.0 margin of victory assured over her sistership, Torkjel Valland's White Shadow (NOR). Yet Landmark seemed cautiously optimistic.
It could be they were not in a celebratory mood until all their measurement checks were completed in the harbor this evening. At this championship if measurement discrepancies are found by the Technical Committee they refer the matter to the Jury who can then use the ORC rules to prescribe percentage penalties depending on how far out of compliance the boat may be from its measurement trim.
White Shadow had a perfect day with two bullets, doing what they can to close the gap with Santa to bring the gold medal decision into a showdown in tomorrow's final race of the series.
In Class C, up until today Patrik Forsgren's modified First 36.7 Pro4U (SWE) had been doing so well that like Santa or Beau Geste their lead looked unassailable, especially after their drop. However, two high scores earned today pushed them back to within reach of the reigning IRC European champion, Gideon Messink's J/112E J Lance (FRA), only 8 points away. Messink and his team have been strong in the inshore racing and scored their only double-digit result today in six inshore races sailed, so the Swedes are worried.
One more inshore race is scheduled for Friday, with the start once again planned for 1100 local time.
