Sailors Thrash it out in Shifting Winds in Charlotte Harbor

Fickle winds once again blighted sailors on the fourth day of races at the 2012 International Association for Disabled Sailing (IFDS) World Championships. What started out as a three-race day with nine knots ended up with two races for each fleet at five to seven knots.

On the 2.4mR course the leading trio of France’s Damien Seguin, the Netherlands’ Theirry Schmitter and Canada’s Paul Tingley thrashed it out again. Seguin tenaciously clung to a lead with a third and second place, Schmitter was steady with fifth and fourth places and Tingley jumped from eighth to third place in the final race.

In the Sonar class the Aleksander Wang-Hanse, Marie Solberg/Per Eugen Kristiansen team of Norway had a remarkable day with two firsts, overtaking yesterday’s leading team, Great Britain’s John Robertson, Hannah Stodel/Steve Thomas who came in second in the first race and threw out their second race of eighth place. Coming third overall on the fourth day of racing was Netherlands’ Udo Hessels, Marcel van deVeen/Mischa Rossen, who edged out France’s Bruno Jourdren and crew with fifth and third places.

The SKUD racecourse benefited from better winds. Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell of Great Britain maintained a lead with a first place in the first race, fourth place in the second which they threw out. Nipping at their transom was the American team of Jennifer French and Jean-Paul Creignou with a big improvement from a thrown out sixth place in the first race to a first place in the second. The Australian team of Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch was not far behind with a second place in the first race and fifth place in the final race.

SKUD sailors have raced eight times, Sonar seven and 2.4mR nine times. Sailors will race a total of eleven races with starts at 10:25 a.m. local time over the weekend.

The 2012 IFDS Disabled Sailing Combined World Championships are being organized, and run, by Charlotte Harbor Regatta, Inc.