Alistair Deaves reports on the final days of racing:

The phrase "it's never normally like this" has never been more aptly used than for the venue of the 2011 OK Dinghy World Championship. With a strong reputation for rain and cold weather, Largs in Scotland produced unusual conditions with mainly light to moderate winds, sunny and with temperatures often in the mid 20s. Of the ten sheduled races only six were held as there was often not enough wind to start a race.

A 14th and 13th on day one gave me a good start and I followed that with a second place in the only race on day two. The winner of that race, Greg Wilcox, and myself opened up a large lead on the rest of the fleet and just sailed our own race. Greg was the only other New Zealand sailor in the fleet of 67,

The was no racing on the Wednesday, although we did have about 7 starts, as the wind went around in circles.

On the Thursday we had two more races in a very patchy and shifty breeze. A huge shift up the first beat of the first race of the day saw me round in the 50s although I recovered to 25th by the end. In the second race of the day I was 11th, to go into the final day just hanging on to a top 10 spot.

On the final day, and with anyone in the top 5 capable of winning, we sat on shore until 1.30pm with no sign of any breeze until the Race Officer had us towed to the starting area where an 8-10 knot sea breeze had developed. He got the race underway very smartly even though a few boats unfortunately could not get back to the start line in time. I started cleanly and was third at the top. I took the lead on the second beat and extended away from there to the finish. A good way to end the regatta which lifted me to 8th overall. My first top 10 finish in a Worlds.

The results were very tight at the top with only 4 points seperating the top 4. Nick Craig (GBR) won his fourth World title ahead of Martin von Zimmerman (GER), Thomas Hanson-Mild (SWE) and Greg Wilcox (NZL).

Full results at

http://www.okworlds2011.org.uk/results/wldsrace11.xml

Thanks to Wakatere Boating Club for their support and also to Charterlink Ltd., Oceanbridge, The NZ OK Dinghy Assn., Art of Racing Ltd, Harken (NZ) and Predict Wind.

Alistair