Race Day 1 Of the IFDS World Championships

          Two races sailed today after a 10 am briefing, with most boats leaving the dock by 11.30 to get out to the course , approximately a 40 minute tow from the RNSYS.

I will let Kathy Large, the lead journalist for the RNSYS tell you the rest and add a few of the action shots from the day .

"Sunny skies and shifty wind conditions were part of the story of the first day of racing at the High Liner IFDS Worlds 2014 at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  All three classes raced twice on Tuesday with some drama focused on the 2.4 mR course where 48 competitors have to fight for the favoured spot to cross over the start line. A number of competitors were given a black flag on the third recall and several high performers are were caught up and now sit far back in the fleet.

 

                                                             

On the SKUD-18 course, the Italian team of Marco Guadalandris and Marta Zanetti are tied for first place with Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch of Australia, the gold medal winners from the 2012 London Paralympics.  The British team of Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell are next and Canadians John McRoberts and Jackie Gay are just one point behind.

 

                     They were off to a quiet start in the first race ..

                                                       

                    Then...The Aussies had an interesting rounding

                                   for which they paid a penalty..

                       There are now three purple spinnakers , Pete is AUS055

                              here come Pete and Rachael in the middle ..

                               Two teams from the Netherlands

                                    The fleet under spinnaker

                                     .. another rounding ..Kite ready to go..

                              one of the Netherland s teams

                                    five minutes between races..

                                              The kiwis

               The second race start.. more aggressive and a better line

                 Best of all Pete's brother Phil and wife Rosemary are here
                              to add some joy to the team...

 

                                   and found  a very nice spectator boat

 

The weather outlook for the week is for continued fair conditions with light winds forecast for the next couple of days.

Pete and Rachael are in 13th position after two races in a fleet of 15.