|
|
Monday, 10 February 2003
The old adage “you should have been here yesterday” rang true – again! In the days leading up to the event, the Northeast Monsoon has been blowing true and constant. Unfortunately a tropical cyclone that has been hovering around further south appears to have changed all that. The body of water that separates Singapore from Johor, Malaysia was a flat as a billiard table at dawn - perfect for everything else but a world-class event. With little wind, the entire race-ready fleet was kept on the lawn until the race committee deemed enough wind to race. In the down time, contestants caught up on sleep, chatted with friends from the international circuit, climbed the tower and went wind spotting. Mitch Booth and Jeff Alter spent time showing some people the ropes. By 3pm, there seemed little hope of getting any racing. Many of the sailors began to pack up for the day. Just as sails were dropped and bagged, beach master Kim Thomas received a call from the ever-vigilant Race Committee to “hit the water”. At about 4 o’clock, race 1 of the Tiger World Championship was underway in 6-8 knots of wind. Not ideal, but a race nonetheless. With a target of 5 races per day, the race committee was anxious to get in as many races as they could. Singapore is an island surrounded by the Malaysian Peninsular. Strong tides run through the narrow confines of the channels. A group of boats broke away to the right hand side of the course, only to be disadvantaged by wind and tide on the first leg. Those who held the starboard tack after the start and went toward the Malaysian coastline were favoured. Without the spinnakers, the first downwind leg would have been a lesson in patience. At the leeward gate, competitors had the choice of rounding a port or starboard hand marker before making their way upwind to the finish line. On the final windward leg, it was advantageous to head toward the Singapore coastline and then tack to the line. With 2 sides of the course being advantaged on 2 different legs, the pecking order of the fleet was bound to change considerably. At the finish of Race 1, four different countries filled the top five positions.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t such a good day for Mitch and Taylor Booth in 18th position and Gavin Colby/Cori Camenish in 17th. However, it was an okay day for Mark Haswell/Cath Fong, Philippines in 16th who, until this morning, had never been aboard a Hobie Tiger. The Malaysian entry of Nigel Harris/Glen Ormerod finished the day in 27th place. Another team who didn't fare well were the team of Brad Sumner and Kevin "Kevlar" Winchester from Australia. After finishing a creditable 8th, the were later penalised 10 points for an incident that occurred on the start line, when they were caught in a squeeze of boats behind the start boat. Most unfortunate was the South African Team of Mark Kopel and Thomas Sutherland who had downed their sails earlier and had gone off to the bank to get money for their boat charter and missed the race entirely. But these are early days and, with the weather pattern returning to normal, we can expect about 20 good races over the next four days. This Championship might go right ‘down to the wire’ as anything can happen.
Scott McCook
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The opening ceremony conducted at the Marina on Sunday 9th February evening was well received by all contestants, especially a most acrobatic Lion Dance that traditionally heralds in Chinese New Year. It must also be an auspicious sign to have a wet Chinese New Year as overnight showers may have dampened the weather pattern, but not the spirit of the competitors as all 33 entrants appeared early on Monday morning at the marina to get ready.