Moth Worlds - Day 6

Fonte: The Daily Sail

Thierry Martinez /Sea & Co/www.thmartinez.com

Josh McKnight takes the lead

After a tricky Lake Garda day at the Zhik Moth World Championships
Saturday August 25th 2012, Author: James Boyd, Location: Italy



To say that Saturday's racing at the 2012 Zhik Nautica Moth World Championship was a tricky one and full of surprises and upsets would be the week's biggest understatement.

The first and most decisive race of the day, turned the tables and saw some of the leaders with scores in the teens, twenties or even thirties! It is clear that consistency and making the least errors are the keys in this regatta and that's exactly what McKnight has shown all week.

With overcast skies and lower temperatures Lake Garda's afternoon wind, Ora, wasn't as steady as in the previous days, especially with a start one hour earlier than on Friday. The right side of the course, as close to the rocks as possible, has paid handsomely throughout this week, but this was the one and only race where it wouldn't. The left turned out to be so favoured that Brad Funk, the US sailor that saw it coming, ended up ahead by a mile. When the trailing boats on the right saw it and went left, the breeze died and turned right. Some of the top ten sailors – Babbage, Kotoun, Salter and McDougall – got the double whammy 'right when it's left and left when it's right', rounding the first top mark towards the bottom of the fleet. Babbage managed to climb up to 16th, but McKnight had yet another consistent race, finishing fourth.

As the breeze got fresher and steadier, the second race was more about boat speed, as Anthony Kotoun stated. The sailor from the US Virgin Islands nailed his start, got off to the rocks and was able to build an immense lead at the first top mark. Bora Gulari couldn't do anything to catch up with Kotoun and crossed the finish line in second place, ahead of Julian Salter and Joshua McKnight - a major turnaround for Kotoun after coming home 33rd in the previous race.

The final race was again a demonstration of flawless sailing by Josh McKnight. He got the start right with full pace and rounded the first weather mark in second place, trailing Julian Salter. McKnight has shown his strength upwind all week and overtook Salter on the second beat. Once again, Kotoun kept his calm, weaved through the fleet and bagged another second place.

"Scott is still the favorite to win this regatta, I'm just trying to sail well and get some solid results," said McKnight after racing. "My aim is to be at the top five in each race and I've been working hard to achieve that. At the first top mark of the first race I was probably 7th or 8th or even deeper but since it was quite choppy quite a few around me fell in the first downwind. I sailed more conservatively and finished the race in second place.”

Scott Babbage posted a 16-5-4 today, and now trails McKnight by two points, but is eight ahead of third-placed Kotoun.

"“In the first race I didn't get off the start line well," Babbage recalled. "Then the breeze went really light at the top mark and I was just on the layline with lots of boats. I couldn't get around the top foiling, so I was deep in the pack, without really many opportunities to get through the fleet. So, I had a really bad one and then probably a fifth and another fifth. Joshua might have passed me in the leaderboard with his three good results.”

The 2012 Zhik Nautica Moth Worlds will come to an end tomorrow Sunday after the three final races are sailed. A violent storm is forecast on Lake Garda on Saturday night that could result in a strong Pelèr (northerly breeze) on Sunday morning and an extremely light Ora in the afternoon. As a result, the Race Committee has decided to bring the start time forward to 1000.

2012 Zhik Nautica Moth World Championships - full Gold fleet results:
Pos Nat Helm Qrank R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 Tot Net
1 AUS Josh McKnight 2 2 -4 1 2 4 1 16 12
2 AUS Scott Babbage 1 1 1 2 -16 5 4 30 14
3 ISV Anthony Kotoun 4 3 2 10 -33 1 2 55 22
4 USA Bora Gulari 3 5 -11 3 8 2 8 40 29
5 AUS Julian Salter 8 9 6 7 -38 3 7 78 40
6 USA Brad Funk 18 6 -10 4 1 8 5 52 42
7 AUS Rob Gough 12 4 3 5 -11 10 10 55 44
8 AUS Andrew McDougall 7 7 12 8 7 -34 3 78 44
9 USA Eric Aakhus 17 8 -15 6 10 6 11 73 58
10 GBR Chris Rashley 5 12 9 11 13 9 (61.0 DSQ) 120 59
11 GBR Jason Paul Belben 9 13 5 -22 3 18 15 85 63
12 GBR Simon Payne 11 -31 16 12 4 11 14 99 68
13 AUS John Harris 26 18 7 14 -19 17 12 113 94
14 ITA Francesco Bianchi 10 15 (61.0 DNC) 19 12 29 13 159 98
15 AUS James Edward Dorron 30 10 8 9 23 23 -24 127 103
16 GBR Tom Offer 15 16 22 23 -53 25 17 171 118
17 GBR Michael Lennon 16 -32 29 20 20 26 9 152 120
18 USA George Peet 43 -24 13 21 17 14 15.5 RDG 147.5 123.5
19 GBR Ricky Tagg 22 30 25 -38 22 16 20 173 135
20 GBR Ben Paton 24 21 17 28 (61.0 DNC) 21 26 198 137
21 GBR Peter Barton 27 20 31 16 18 -50 28 190 140
22 GBR James Phare 59 14 14 13 -26 19 23 168 142
23 AUS Turner Joe Mothman 6 (61.0 DNC) 61.0 DNC 61.0 DNC 5 7 6 207 146
24 AUS Warren Sare 23 29 -44 36 31 13 16 192 148
25 GBR Robert Greenhalgh 14 -43 20 26 28 31 31 193 150
26 GBR Andrew Friend 31 33 28 24 14 22 -41 193 152
27 SUI Renker Matthias 32 27 -37 33 30 12 19 190 153
28 NED Eelco Boers 25 -55 18 15 27 43 25 208 153
29 ESP Pablo Arandia 21 35 26 (61.0 DNF) 24 30 18 215 154
30 ITA Peter Stuffer 39 -45 19 18 29 27 29 206 161
31 GBR Richard Westbury 37 38 -46 31 6 15 35 208 162
32 AUS Phillip Kurts 19 17 34 32 37 -38 27 204 166
33 ITA Harald Stuffer 35 25 27 29 15 39 -42 212 170
34 NZL Matt Vincent 13 11 23 45 -49 48 44 233 184
35 GBR Gareth John Davies 33 26 38 27 -47 28 36 235 188
36 USA Matt Knowles 44 23 35 25 32 -36 30 225 189
37 ITA Enrico Fonda 38 37 41 37 -58 20 22 253 195
38 GBR Mike Cooke 20 49 24 30 44 -57 37 261 204
39 AUS Jack Riley Sherring 29 28 32 52 25 46 -53 265 212
40 SUI Philip Käsermann 56 22 21 39 -48 40 40 266 218
41 NZL Jason Russell 41 44 30 35 -46 37 33 266 220
42 GBR Olivier Vidal 36 (61.0 DNC) 61.0 DNC 17 54 24 34 287 226
43 SUI Alessandro Fuchs 46 48 42 -54 9 51 32 282 228
44 SWE Martin Grävare 60 34 40 -43 21 41 39 278 235
45 AUS Kohei Kajimoto 34 (61.0 DNC) 39 51 39 42 38 304 243
46 SUI Psarofaghis Mikis 42 -54 47 50 36 33 43 305 251
47 ITA Marco Lanulfi 54 -50 33 34 43 49 45 308 258
48 SUI Fabien Froesch 28 39 (61.0 DNC) 61.0 DNC 40 45 48 322 261
49 ITA Stefano Rizzi 40 19 49 53 -55 55 49 320 265
50 ITA Gianmaria Ferrighi 52 36 48 48 -51 35 47 317 266
51 AUS Mark Robinson 55 41 36 41 50 -52 46 321 269
52 AUS Ben Newling 45 47 45 40 42 54 -56 329 273
53 ITA Pietro Sibello 47 46 53 46 52 32 (61.0 DNC) 337 276
54 GER Frederik Schmid 50 (61.0 DNC) 43 42 35 56 52 339 278
55 GER Sven Kloppenburg 57 40 51 47 34 -58 55 342 284
56 ITA Fabio Mazzetti 49 52 52 44 -56 44 54 351 295
57 FRA Andrillon Yann 58 51 54 -55 45 47 51 361 306
58 SWE Emma Aspington 53 42 50 49 (61.0 DNC) 61.0 DNC 61.0 DNC 377 316
59 ITA Stefano Ferrighi 48 53 (61.0 DNC) 61.0 DNC 57 53 50 383 322
60 GBR Simon Hiscocks 51 (61.0 DNC) 61.0 DNC 61.0 DNC 41 61.0 DNC 61.0 DNC 397 336






From Thierry Martinez/Sea & Co/www.thmartinez.com