Battle for podium at RS Feva Worlds

Clearwater, FL (April 6, 2018) – Three more races were completed by the 51-boat fleet at the 2018 RS Feva World Championship. Only four points separate the top three with Ben Hutton-Penman and Abi Jayasekara (GBR) switching places with Dieter Creitz/ Conrad Miller (USA) while William Caiger/ Becky Caiger (GBR) remain in third.

UPDATE: The results have been updated to reflect a scoring penalty for Dieter Creitz/ Conrad Miller (USA) in Race 10 to move them down to third, now 13 points off the lead.

Full report:
The PRO wasted on time in releasing the sailors off the beach on race day 3 of the RS Feva World Championships. The breeze was good, 12-15 knot from the east, as the sailors headed out into the Gulf of Mexico for another fantastic day of racing in the beautiful part of the US.

Unfortunately, the breeze lightened to around 6kts at the beginning of the first race of the day (race 8 in the series). In the light condition Jakub Dobry/ Veronika Cibulkova (CZE) seem to excel as they led the fleet to the windward mark. Just behind them Joe Slipper/ Tea Sirolla (GBR) also seem to enjoy the lighter condition as they appeared back in the top 5 for the first time since race day 1.

On the final run Ben Hutton-Penman/ Abi Jayasekara (GBR) showed their class as they made up ten places to finish second behind Dobry/ Cibulkova while regatta leaders Dieter Creitz/ Conrad Miller (USA) could only manage a fourth in the tricky condition.

As the final boats crossed the finish line, the PRO was keen to turn them around quickly but the wind faded away leading to a frustrating one hour postponement. Eventually the wind shifted 45 degrees to the South and started to build again. The course was quickly set as the race team did a brilliant job of get race 9 underway.

Tom Storey/ Rupert Jameson (GBR) led Race 9 from start to finish, though Hutton-Penman/ Jayasekara (GBR) did give them a scare with some great pace down the final run. The finish was so close that the pin end could not call it and the committee boat needed to replay the video footage to confirm Storey/ Jameson (GBR) had hung on for the win.

In race 10 it was the all female team Anna Justová/ Nela Višcorová (CZE) time to shine as the led most of the race. However, Hutton-Penman/ Jayasekara (GBR) again found pace on last run to grab the bullet while Justová/ Višcorová (CZE) finished third just behind Creitz/ Miller (USA).

As the boats headed home after another amazing day of race only 4 points separated the top 3 boats. It looks like this championships will stay alive until the final races. A protest against Creitz/ Miller (USA) would see them take a 30% penalty leaving them in third overall.

At this year’s World Championship the female sailors make up 46% of the fleet and the Ladies World Championship title finds Femme Rijk/ Silke Zuidema (NED) in control

Racing is scheduled from April 4 to 8.

Day Three Standings (Top 10 of 51; 10 races, 1 discard)

Event details – Results – Facebook