The first day of the 2008 Worlds the fleet was ready after measuring in and sailing the Canadian Nationals for two days in the nice South Westerly's that make Kingston famous. Soren Andreasen of Denmark leads after finishing second in both races. Chris Homeier of Germany won the first race and Marcus Hamilton of Australia the second. Earlier Hamilton had won the Canadian title.

The fleet at this event consists of members from eight nations with ages ranging from 20 to the early 70s. Can you imagine jumping under a Contender boom at 70+ years of age. Gil Woolley is an amazing athlete.

We are sailing out on the Foxtrot course and several competitors can't resist taking shortcuts through the rocks by Snake Island - some great damage of rudders and centreboards continue. More to come I am sure.

Race 1
The forecast for today was wind for the North. This makes for a crapshoot with the wind moving easily 30 degrees and varying pressure from around 5-12 knots throughout the course. We started right on time at 12:30 about half the fleet went left and the wind made its first of many shifts to the left.

Some sailors including Christoph Homeier and Soren Andreasen who had both been on the right hand side tacked over and were above most of the fleet. Marcus Hamilton (current world champ) and a few others were just 5 seconds late in the shift and were quickly left behind. The right hand side of the course had less wind and was not able to make up the ground.

Soren came first around the top mark with Christoph and a young new star Max from Germany close behind. At the bottom mark the 3 boats rounded almost at the same time. Soren tacked first, Christoph and Max followed shortly, during the upwind Christoph had a good tour to the right side and managed to pass Soren on the downwind. On the next upwind quite a few changes due to the shifts but in the end Christoph took the bullet.

Race 2
For the second race the wind had picked up slightly and was a bit more stable than in the first race. The first around the top mark was Bart Thorborg from Holland followed by Marcus Hamilton and Soren Andreasen, on the first reach Marcus passed Bart and both Soren and old favourite Joachim Harpprecht , aka Shappy (creator of the Musto Skiff) passed him on the second reach. It was a close rounding at the bottom mark, with Christoph, Soren and Sappy all rounding within 2-3 seconds.

The Leaders were in the same position at the top mark and nothing really changed on the downwind except that Shappy went too far right and was overtaken by Bart again. On the last upwind Soren managed to pass Marcus but a major windshift right before the finish line gave Marcus a nice header and he managed to win the race with Soren just a few boat lengths behind him.

Contender Worlds - Positionas after 2 races

1 DEN44 * ANDREASEN, SOREN 2 2 4.00 4.00 DEN Hellerup,HS
2 GER53 BRANDT, OLIVER 5 3 8.00 8.00 GER Hamburt,HSC
3 GER551 HOMEIER, CHRISTOPH 1 9 10.00 10.00 GER Kiel,TSVS
4 AUS2443 SUTHERLAND, CHRIS 3 7 10.00 10.00 AUS WA Swanbourne,RFBYC
5 GER488 BILLERBECK, MAX 4 8 12.00 12.00 GER ,WSVK
6 GER531 HARPPRECHT, JOACHIM 7 5 12.00 12.00 GER Molfsee,TSS
7 NED212 THORBORG, BART 11 4 15.00 15.00 NED leiden,WB
8 AUS2323 * HAMILTON, MARCUS 15 1 16.00 16.00 AUS Melbourne,BRYC
9 NED232 THORBORG, MARK 6 10 16.00 16.00 NED haarlem,KMJC
10 ITA99 VERSARI, MARCO 12 6 18.00 18.00 ITA Milano,CNB
11 2372 ANOSOV, ARTHUR 10 12 22.00 22.00 USA FL Ruskin,
12 USA2396 BIXBY, ETHAN 9 14 23.00 23.00 USA FL St Petersburg,
13 GER540 ENGEL, CHRISTOPH 14 11 25.00 25.00 GER ,KYC
14 CAN2399 MARTIN, ROGER 8 18 26.00 26.00 CAN ON Toronto,OHCC
15 2398 SMITH, NEIL 13 13 26.00 26.00 CAN ON North York,OHCC
16 GER425 ROESLER, JOACHIM 16 16 32.00 32.00 GER CT New Canaan,
17 NED218 THORBORG, RIK 19 15 34.00 34.00 NED NH Bergen,WSVH
18 NED233 HAANSTRA, JAN 17 17 34.00 34.00 NED ferwoude,GWS
19 CAN2397 SMITS, MICHAEL 20 20 40.00 40.00 CAN ON Toronto,OHCC
20 GBR1771 MOLLAT, ALAN 23 19 42.00 42.00 GBR Deal,SBSWC
21 CAN84 MAGNAN, JOEL 18 25 43.00 43.00 CAN ON Etobicoke,OHCC
22 473 WHITE, RODGER 21 23 44.00 44.00 GBR ,KGSC
23 USA2117 WOOLLEY, GIL 22 26 48.00 48.00 USA CA Palo Alto,SCYC
24 967 CHIDDY, JOSHUA 24 24 48.00 48.00 CAN ON Hamilton,OHCC
25 81 BIEBER, BERNIE 28 21 49.00 49.00 CAN ON Hamilton,OACC
26 CAN68 NEEDHAM, RICHARD 25 29 54.00 54.00 CAN ON Toronto,OHCC
27 USA192 CAMERON, BRAD 26 28 54.00 54.00 USA CA Tracy,SSS
28 CAN1599 WHITTINGTON, FRANK DNF. 22 57.00 57.00 CAN ON Toronto,OHCBC
29 CAN2428 MARTIN, PETER 30 27 57.00 57.00 CAN ON Toronto,OHCC
30 USA200 MASHI, MIKE 27 32 59.00 59.00 USA TX Seguin,SAYC
31 GBR621 WEEDON-JONES, VANESSA 29 30 59.00 59.00 GBR Eaton Bray,OSC
32 CAN726 JANIDLO, TOM 31 33 64.00 64.00 CAN ON Ottawa,
33 CAN80 MAH, STEPHANIE DNF. 31 66.00 66.00 CAN ON Richmond Hill,OHCC
34 CAN61 WOOD, STEVEN DNF. DNF. 70.00 70.00 CAN ON Toronto,OHCC

Contender Canadian Championship - Leading final positions

1 AUS2323 HAMILTON, MARCUS 3 3 1 2 1 10.00 7.00 AUS Melbourne,BRYC
2 DEN44 ANDREASEN, SOREN 2 2 DNS 1 2 39.00 7.00 DEN Hellerup,HS
3 GER551 HOMEIER, CHRISTOPH 4 1 2 3 5 15.00 10.00 GER Kiel,TSVS
4 ITA99 VERSARI, MARCO 5 5 4 4 3 21.00 16.00 ITA Milano,CNB
5 AUS2443 SUTHERLAND, CHRIS 6 4 5 5 4 24.00 18.00 AUS WA Swanbourne,RFBYC
6 NED233 HAANSTRA, JAN 15 6 3 6 6 36.00 21.00 NED ferwoude,GWS

by Duncan Ellis

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