Day One

The 2002 OK Dinghy World Championships kicked off in fine style with two testing races in the waters off Napier, New Zealand. Offshore, unstable winds caused a large number of windshifts and many places changes throughout the racing.

The 79 boat fleet consists of competitors from 11 nations, including for the first time Korea and Singapore. Other nations competing are Australia, Belgium, Great Britian, Germany, India, Poland, Sweden as well as a strong local contingent.

Race One (by Greg Wilcox)

Jim Hong-chul (KOR) led the first race from the start from Richard Barker (NZL). Jayson Herbert (NZL) rounded the first mark third and Greg Wilcox (NZL) was fourth round. Herbert was fastest down the reaches and was second around the bottom mark. The variable wind also caused some very large windshifts. Bart Bomans (BEL) was also fast downwind and had moved up to fourth by the leeward mark, with Karsten Hitz (GER) close on his transom. Jin sailed well up the second beat and opened up a large lead followed by Richard Barker, Jayson Herbert and Greg Wilcox. The Korean went on to win comfotably from Richard and Greg with Russell Wood (NZL) just finishing ahead of Karsten Hitz (GER).

Results:

1KOR 1Jim Hong-chul
2NZl 497Richard Barker
3NZL 512Greg Wilcox
4NZL 500Russell Wood
5GER 727Karsten Hitz
6NZL 499Jayson Herbert

Race Two (by Karsten Hitz)

The Pacific Ocean is endless and we are racing in a small corner of it. At the windward mark Russell Wood was leading the fleet in front of Greg Wilcox and Karsten Hitz in third. Many changes in wind speed and direction later, Greg Wilcox and Karsten Hitz led around the last leeward mark with a comfortable lead. However a 60 degree windshift up the final beat changed the places to leave Russell Wood the winner and Jin Hong-chul in second.

Results:

1NZl 500Russell Wood
2KOR 1Jin Hong-chul
3NZL 512Greg Wilcox
4GER 727Karsten Hitz
5NZL 511Ben Morrisson
6GBR 2104Nick Craig

Positions Overall:

1 KOR 1 Jin Hong-chul
2 NZL Russell Wood
3 NZL Greg Wilcox Vet
4 GER Karsten Hitz Vet
5 NZL Richard Barker
6 SWE Thomas Hansson-Mild
7 NZL Ian Neely
8 GBR Nick Craig
9 NZL Alastair Gair
10 NZL Joe Porebski Vet