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It's a rest day for the 297 athletes competing in the 2009 Nautel Laser Masters World Championships on St. Margaret's Bay, near Halifax, NS. Most fleets have five races in after three gruelling days of competition.
Shifty winds made for two very long days on the water on Sunday and Monday; almost eight hours for most of the sailors.
The St. Margaret Sailing Club is hosting a Maritime Kitchen Party this evening at the club for competitors beginning at five. Steamed mussels are on the menu, maritime music in the clubhouse.
It's back to competition on Thursday, and the race committee has moved the start of racing forward one hour to noon.
The Masters, which is for athletes 35 years of age and older, concludes on Saturday. |
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The wind returned to St. Margaret’s Bay, but it wasn’t the sea breeze that has made the Bay famous as one of the best sailing venues in the world.
Instead, it was an offshore shifty wind with speeds of six to 15 knots (14 to 30 kilometres per hour). It still made for a good day of racing on Day Three of the 2009 Nautel Laser Masters World Championships and all fleets completed two races.
The Laser Masters is for athletes 35 years of age and older, sailing a single-handed single sail Laser. The oldest at this championship being held on St. Margaret’s Bay near Halifax, Nova Scotia is 77 years old.
The field of close to 300 sailors from 27 countries is divided according to age and the type of rig they sail. The Standard rig is a slightly larger mast and sail than the Radial rig.
In the Standard fleet, for the Apprentice (35 to 44 years old) Adonis Bougiouris of Greece remains in first, with Australians Brett Beyer and Stewart Casey in second and third.
For the Masters Standard (45 to 54 years old); it continues to be a tight race with the top ten sailors within seven points of each other. Arnoud Hummel of the Netherlands has moved to first, American Scott Ferguson in second and Canadian Andy Roy in third.
For the Grand Masters (55 and up); Wolfgang Gerz from Germany remains in first, with Australians Mark Bethwaite and Robert Lowndes in second and third.
In the Radial fleets; the Apprentice class continues to be dominated by sailors from down under. Aussies Richard Bott and Grant Willmott are in first and second, with New Zealander Scott Leith in third.
For Masters; Carlos Eduardo Wanderley remains in first, Greg Adams of Australia in second and with country mate (and top female) Venessa Dudley in third.
In the Grand Masters Radial Canadian Rob Koci is in first, Australian Peter Heywood remains in second and Alden Shattuck of the United States has moved into third.
The Great Grand Master class for athletes 65 and older; the field of 43 is lead by American Peter Seidenberg, with Australian Kerry Waraker in second and Michael Kinnear of Germany in third.
Wednesday is a rest day for competitors, with racing resuming at noon on Thursday. The Nautel Laser Masters concludes on Saturday. |
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Sailing on St. Margaret’s Bay is not for the faint of heart. Almost three hundred athletes from around the world are learning that lesson this week at the 2009 Nautel Laser Masters World Championships.
Under sunny skies, but shifty winds, it was mid-afternoon before the race committee could get the first race off. It meant for the second day in a row, athletes were on the water for more than six hours. That’s a gruelling schedule for a Masters regatta where the youngest competitor is 35 and the oldest is 77 years old.
In the Standard fleets, the Apprentice division (35 to 44 years old) was the only one to get in two races on Day Two. Adonis Bougiouris of Greece is in first place, Australian Brett Beyer is in second, with Orlando Gledhill of Great Britain in third, and Canadian Ray Davies in fourth.
For the Masters (45 to 54 years old); Scott Ferguson of the United States is in first, hometown favourite Andy Roy is in second and Ari Barshi of the Dominican Republic is in third. Roy, from Ontario, spent his summers sailing the waters around Nova Scotia and is from a well-known Nova Scotia sailing family.
After three races, Wolfgang Gerz of Germany remains in the lead in the Grand Masters (55 to 64 years old), Australian Mark Bethwaite is in second and American Doug Peckover is in third.
The Radial fleet (a smaller sail than the Standard rig) only got one race in on Day Two. The Apprentice division is dominated by the southern hemisphere with Grant Wilmott of Australia in first, Edmund Tam of New Zealand in second and Australian Richard Bott in third.
For the Masters Radial, Carlos Eduardo Wanderley from Brazil is in first, and Australians Greg Adams and Venessa Dudley in second and third. The top Canadian in the fleet is Nigel Heath in fifth.
Australian Peter Heywood is atop the Grand Master Radial fleet, with Alden Shattuck of the USA in second and New Zealander Bruce Jones in third.
In the Great Grand Master fleet, Michael Kinnear of Great Britain is in first, Australian Kerry Waraker in second and Sandy Grigg of New Zealand in third. |
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Winds are shifty today on St. Margaret's Bay, making it difficult to set the race course. The first race of the day finally got underway around 1500h, after several attempts. Winds are gusting to 10 knots early in the afternoon, under sunny skies.
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It took a little patience, but the famous sea breeze of St. Margaret’s Bay didn’t disappoint. Competitors got in two races on the first day of racing in the 2009 Nautel Laser Masters World Championship. But with the wind not coming in until mid-afternoon, the first race didn’t get started until three and sailors weren’t off the water until seven in the evening.
In the standard rig, apprentice division, the top finishers were Adonis Bougiouris of Great Britain, Brett Beyer of Australia and Brit Orlando Gledhill in third.
For the Masters Qualifiers in the standard rig, American Andrew Pimental is in first, Arnoud Hummel of the Netherlands in second and American Peter Vessell in third. Top Canadian in the fleet is Andy Roy in fifth spot.
Wolfgang Gerz of Germany leads the Grand Masters standard rig, Australian Mark Bethwaite is in second and Alan Keen of South Africa in third.
In the radial fleet (a slightly smaller sail than the standard), Australian Richard Bott leads the Apprentice fleet, Scot Leith of New Zealand is in second with country mate Edmund Tam in third.
In the Master radial, it’s Carlos Eduardo Wanderley from Brazil in first, and Australians Greg Adams and Venessa Dudley in second and third.
Canadian Rob Koci leads the Grand Master radial fleet, Peter Whipp of Great Britain is in second and Australian Peter Heywood in third.
The Great Grand Master fleet, Michael Kinnear of Great Britain is in first, Australian Kerry Waraker in second and Sandy Grigg of New Zealand in third.
Forty-three of the 297 athletes at the Laser Masters Worlds are Great Grand Masters, meaning they are 65 years of age of older. More than one third of the field is 55 or older. |
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