The ISAF Sailing World Championship is held once every four years, the year before the Olympic Games. This makes it the highest level of competition, with everyone there trying to qualify their country a place at the Olympics, and for some of the more competitive countries, secure that sole Olympic spot.
The 2011 ISAF Worlds was my first ISAF Worlds, and it was an awesome experience! The organisers here in Perth did an amazing job setting up the town of Fremantle with everything from grandstands for great race viewing, to a ‘Worlds Village’ with shops and a big stage for regular performances. I would have to say it is the biggest, best run and well organised regatta I have ever experienced.
The racing was intense from the start. There were 150 Laser Standard Men vying for the world title, split into 3 fleets of 50 boats for qualifying races, and then into Gold, Silver, and Bronze fleets for the finals.
I can’t say I was thrilled with how I sailed in the qualifying series, after some good races including a 2nd, but then some shockers including my worst race in shifty conditions on the final day of qualifying. I qualified 29th for Gold Fleet, with plenty of work to do in the final 4 races if I wanted to move up the leader board significantly. I had to really put that last disappointing day of qualifying racing behind me, and take the next 4 races one race at a time as I had already scored that massive drop in qualifying (not ideal!!). I managed to put it to the back of my mind and sailed 4 good Gold Fleet races, including a 3rd place, to move up to 13th place by the end of the event! I definitely made some big mistakes throughout the regatta, but am happy with how I came back from a below average qualifying series, to move up to 13th by the end. Congratulations to Andrew Murdoch, who got the Bronze medal (I believe his 3rd Bronze at the Laser Worlds over the last six years), he sailed an amazing event and I look forward to training and racing with him next year, trying to beat him a bit more often though!
Check out this awesome footage of sailing here , I have never seen such great video of a laser race before. From around 4:00 – 16:00 there is some good laser footage including the qualifying race that I finished 2nd in, my sail number is NZL 018.
The one thing that Fremantle did not live up to, was the expectation that many competitor's had of the 'Fremantle Doctor' coming in regularly. The 'Doctor' is the name of the 18-25 knot seabreeze in Fremantle that this place is known for. We didn't see it once during our racing, with our windiest races in an offshore wind direction in stormy weather with the occasional thunder/lightning storm! The pic below is one that a photographer took one night after racing when we had stormy conditions, pretty cool photo.
I have to thank all my supporters, including Oakley whose sunglasses were awesome all week in the Perth summer sun, and Zhik whose sailing gear is awesome and really makes a difference in performance on the water! Also thanks to Dean and Heleen (Josh Junior’s parents) for staying with us here and helping us out so much off the water. It was great to have you both here!
The 2012 World Champs are only 5 months away which is awesome to have to look forward to and begin gearing up for in the New Year! I am definitely looking forward to a holiday and break over Christmas, but am already looking forward to next year already, and getting to the top of this fleet!
Thanks for following my progress this year, I have made huge gains in 2011 and have recorded my best results ever, it is a great feeling to be heading in the right direction!
Cheers,
Andy