Laser masters

[Black Panther 1,586]

The worlds have just finished in France. Mike Keeton has taken a title for the 2nd time (he didn't compete last year so his 2 out of 3 ain't bad).

 

He sent me a report but it is kind of text speak as he did it on his phone.

 

Its 1 am and my body is too sore to sleep so thought it a good time to do wrap up.

I was part of a good Kiwi team who performed well in several divisions.

We had top 5 finishes in several divisions - Matt, Bob and Richard Blakey and Edmond Tan all making top 5. Scott Leigth finishing second - first time he has not won in 5 years.

500 plus entrants from 47 countries. Ex Olympic reps, Gold cup winners , current Olympic coaches etc. Two had just competed in the Laser in Santander ISAF worlds. Overall the largest Laser regatta with tough competition in all divisions.

To the last day. Only got one race in.

Final race in 6 to 11 knots, big bump and lots of shifts.

Even though I had lead from day one I still had to beat Jeff to take title after his stellar performance yesterday with two firsts.

I started close to the boat. Good start and ran over boats to leeward but a few boats to weather hooked into a right hander and ran over me.

I tacked right - and hooked back left when I could to stay in touch. Ended up bit further right than wanted but in the end got the shift and was about 8th at top. Jeff got stuck more left and was about 30th.

Held position to wing mark where we ran into the yellow fleet that were finishing their second beat to what was our wing mark. Got forced wide by yellow fleet at the start of the run and couldn’t get clear air. Gybed onto port tight reach - took sterns to get left then gybed again in clear air on the left. Took a few places downhill but lost a few uphill in the light. Also did not want to tack out of port tackers heading right so sailed low and fast to the right which cost a bit. Not too concerned as Jeff was 100m behind.

On second downhill held position - very conservative in boat to avoid any possibility of a penalty infringement.

 

On the last half beat to finish got a bit more pressure and managed to take about 4 boats to finish 5th. Jeff was about 20 plus places behind. Possibility of another race after that but scrubbed when ran out of time.

I ended up with a 2 point win.

 

Overall did not do the training I did in 2011 so never felt I was in charge of the fleet. Had to take a few more risks and scramble back in too many races but managed it. A Very tough way to win.

 

Jeff had the best preparation among the top sailors in my fleet and I consider myself fortunate to have beaten him. Possibly I adapted to the larger fleet faster than others did and that was my edge. I treated the fleet as normal number of boats per boat length and did more preparation pre race than others. Not up the beat but out the sides. I also put a lot of focus on the start technique in the weeks leading up to racing so was confident I could manage to get away well - didn’t always work but it got me away well most of the time.

That's it.

Will take a few pain killers and hit the sack again.

Mike

[Island Time 1,235]

Same article on the front page....

[otto 31]

each time I talk to Mike he's giving it away then somehow ends up in another country doing another.

Can't help himself.

 

Top effort and well done

[Black Panther 1,586]

Just had a chat with a jet lagged Mike. He was the only Kiwi winner this year. Said racing in the Worlds is unlike anything here, He recalled leading into the bottom mark with 150 boats astern. That meant only one chance to get the right side on the following beat as going up the middle or passing through 150 boats was impossible.

Also said he had less speed that 2 years ago so had to be more aggressive. Time at the venue beforehand paid off as he felt he always knew what the wind would do.