News

July 21, 2008

PRESS RELEASE 5

International Optimist Dinghy Association (IODA) World Championships Cesme, Turkey – 14 July to 25 July 2008

July 20th – Team Racing Report

General report :

No change to individual scores – only team racing today.

Tournament rules : this is a double elimination tournament. You have to lose twice to be knocked out.
Teams race 4 against 4, low score wins – except tie-breaker if both teams equal score then team with 1st place loses.

First race vs. Uruguay
BDA team sluggish off the line, Uruguay immediately launched into 1st and 2nd position. Bermuda only chance to drive Uruguay’s team back to 7 and 8 position. BDA team fought hard, and approaching the finish line it was very close – Team BDA had a call on Uruguay, the Uruguay did an ‘insurance’ penalty turn but judges ruled ‘green flag, and Uruguay sailor just pipped BDA sailor so that Uruguay had
1,2 6,8 to win the race.

For race 2, Bermuda came up against host nation Turkey – again a very sluggish start and Turkey had a winning combination at the leeward mark. Turkey is a quite inexperienced at team racing, and their leaders came back to assist team members when they did not need to do so.
BDA team capitalized on this mistake to make easy winning combination.

For race 3, Bermuda faced Sweden, a team that had shown an amazing display of teamwork to defeat Germany in the previous round. Sweden had one sailor capsize on downwind leg while Germany had 1,2 position. The Swedish team held back the two back end sailors so well, that the capsized sailor caught up and overtook so that Sweden won the race.
BDA started much better against Sweden, but had to be very wary of their team racing skills. Sweden did move into a winning position around the leeward mark, but BDA sailed an excellent final leg – Sweden tried again to sail a blocking race but BDA avoided their traps and sailed to a narrow victory.

For race 4, Bermuda faced Netherlands – our neighbours on the spectator dock! From the dock this was the most nerve-wracking race, as loud as we cheered, the Dutch were shouting as loud! A very tight first weather leg and first reach made it anybody’s race. At the leeward mark one NED sailor incurred a penalty and Bermuda took the upper hand.
Very close sailing to the finish made it very exciting, and BDA came through comfortably in the end with 1,2,3,8 finish.

Race 5 was against the North American Team Racing champions – Puerto Rico. On the sidelines we were hoping the breeze would drop out – the PUR team are very strong in heavy air. Unfortunately, the breeze even increased a little and PUR took full advantage to lead 1,2,3 at the first weather mark. PUR’s 4th sailor was in last place, our only chance was to reel in their 3rd place guy and put him to the back. Our team attacked, but a penalty call against us made it an easy final leg to the finish for Puerto Rico.

Overall, Team Bermuda finished tied 4th /5th in the IODA Team Racing World Championships – an excellent result!!

Puerto Rico went on to defeat US Virgin Isl in the semi-final, and then beat Singapore in the final. So there is some consolation in the fact that we lost to the tournament champions.

Please note that organizers are claiming photos available on web-site for free. Have not looked at them but please check out the event web-site.

Tomorrow (21st) is the spare day – no racing tomorrow.


For more regatta information : www.optiworld2008.com


Submitted by Martin Siese and David Hillier