Australian International Tornado Association

Day 1 of racing in the 2010 Tornado World Championships was a perfect start to the championships with 15 – 20 knots of wind. Brett and Ryan 1^st day started with a 2^nd in the first race, a 3^rd in the second and they recovered well in the 3^rd race after breaking their Jib sheet on the first upwind to finish a credible 5^th. The two young F18 sailors Adam Beattie and Jamie Leitner showed that changing to a Tornado was not too difficult with two top ten finishes in race 2 and 3 but a DNF in the first race with a broken trapeze wire stopping them from being in the top ten after the first day with them currently sitting in 20^th position. The surprise has been myself and David Beeby who are currently sitting in 10^th position after a slow start. We were hoping to be in the top 25 so this is really encouraging considering Dave and myself have not sailed together on a Tornado before this regatta.

Our first start was a shocker and we had to fight our way through the fleet to recover with a 23^rd. Our starts over the next two races improved but we are still slow out of the blocks. Once we get into clear air we are were finding fantastic speed to be able to pass boats upwind. I think our extra 15-20 kgs of weight gives us the ability to drive the boat hard under power. We managed to pick up 7 to 8 posiitons in the last upwind of both the second and third races to finish with a 10^th and 12^th in the 2^nd and 3^rd races respectively to find ourselves in 10^th position overall after the jury gave one of the German boats a DSQ in the first race from a collision with another boat on the start line.

Peter Gibb and Ethan Neaves are currently sitting in 26^th and Jack Benson and Thilo Keller sitting in 30^th.

View the provisional results here.

We are currently sitting on the shore waiting for the breeze to come in for the second day of racing but the forecast is for shifting light breeze of 3 - 6 knots so we may not see any sailing today. Let's hope that we get some racing in as it is a long way to come to sit on the shore and not sail.