Sari Multala (FIN) Takes the Lead at the Laser Radial Worlds

Just one race was complete in Largs on day three of the 2010 Laser Radial Worlds and defending champion Sari Multala (FIN) emerged at the top of the learderboard at the end of the qualification series.

Overnight leader Marit Bouwmeester (NED) was a woman in a hurry despite the fading breeze and staged a great comeback. Lying deep in the fleet after a very difficult first beat, she made great gains on the downwind legs and rallied to sixth place to lie four points behind Multala.

Not only was she quick enough and smart enough in the testing, shifty and increasingly fluky conditions to rescue a solid finish but the Dutch sailor was ashore and tidied away sufficiently rapidly to be just ready to watch the start of her nation’s football world cup final

Patience was required over the duration of what proved to be a very long day ashore, with successive postponements required while the strong westerly breeze subsided to allow racing. It was only at 1700hrs that both Men’s and Women’s fleets were given their warning signal.


Results
Women’s Fleet

The breeze died progressively leaving big differences in strength across the course and, once again, big shifts in wind direction offered opportunities for big gains and losses.

Evi Van Acker (BEL) started off at the pin end of the start line and was able to get into the best of the early wind pressure, leading the yellow flight race from start to finish with Multala second and Poland’s Joanna Maksymiuk taking third.

While the yellow fleet got away with perhaps the better breeze, the blue fleet suffered a big left wind shift immediately after the start and then a big shift to the right at the top end of their beat. But the most important challenge was to knit together the strands of best wind pressure

Singapore’s Elizabeth Yin won the blue flight race ahead of Spain’s Fatima Reyes, while fifth place for Mexico’s Tania Elias Calles Wolf ensures her consistent string of scores remains intact and she now lies third.

Largs has proven a testing challenge in brisker winds, but with the breezes now expected to drop to the lower end of the scale for the second half of the regatta, perhaps it is only likely to get more difficult. In a very high standard of fleet the stakes get higher and higher.

In the Men’s championship Poland’s Marcin Rudawski scored his fourth win from five starts to sit one point clear of his compatriot Wojciech Zemke, while Holland’s Ben Kopelaar lies third.

Quotes

Sari Multala (FIN): “ I was starting in the middle and had clear air and so could choose where I wanted to go. There looked to be some pressure on the right and in fact the people who were in it actually did not seem to get very far in it. So actually I got into the first pressure from the left, and there were actually a couple of boats from the far left who did better. So both the sides were OK. On the run I got from third to second where I stayed. I needed a good race and got one.”

Evie Van Acker (BEL): “I had a good start at the pin end of the line. There were not so many people there and I was able to pull out a little bit. I tacked again to get the fresher pressure and then I was leading at the first mark from Laura Baldwin begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting and Sari Multala behind her.”
“Downwind I was really fast and on the right side with the current. When the wind dropped and dropped the current became more and more important and from there I was just defending.”

Event Website

Details of Protest/Redress Hearing Decisions for 11 July, race day one.

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Sari Multala (FIN) Takes the Lead at the Laser Radial Worlds

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