Despite a long day of waiting for a single race to be run on Thursday, Laser sailor Andrew Campbell, 18, of San Diego, and Byte sailor Paige Railey, 15, of Clearwater, Fla., maintained the top positions in their respective fleets at the 2002 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship. No races were sailed until 4:50 in the afternoon, when a fickle Nova Scotian seabreeze provided just enough wind for one singlehanded race and two races on the 29er course.
Railey won her start, but two sailors behind her banged the right-hand corner and found a surprising, favorable shift. They moved ahead of Railey, and a similar situation occurred on the first downwind leg, dropping Railey into eighth place. She caught one boat on the last upwind leg, finishing seventh. Railey is leading the Byte fleet with 22 points, 2 points ahead of Jennifer Spaulding, of Canada.
“Im disappointed with how the race went,” said Railey. “Im not leading by as many points as I was yesterday, so now theres pressure. But thats OK. Besides, theres always tomorrow.”
Campbell experienced a similar situation when he won his start on the favored right hand side of the course, minutes before an unexpected shift left him deep in the Laser fleet. A strong downwind sailor, Campbell managed to catch up to seventh place before crossing the line.
“I had a great start,” said Campbell, “But the dying seabreeze made things difficult.” Tobias Schadewaldt, of Germany, who began today 1 point behind Campbell, struggled in todays race. He finished 13th, and Campbells lead over the German sailor has increased to 3 points.
The 29er fleet sailed two short races in the light air. Alex Bernal and Tedd White, both 17, of Santa Barbara, remained in fourth place for the series with 26 points, 5 points behind Guillavme Vigna and Thibaut Gatti, of France.
“Its really frustrating to sail a 29er in this kind of breeze,” said Bernal. “Tomorrow were hoping to get lots of wind. The weather forecast calls for some breeze, but we wont believe it until we see it.”
Both American 29er teams ended today with a seventh place finish and a third place finish on their scorecard. For Molly Carapiet, 18, and Mallory McCollum, 16, of Belvedere, Calif., this moved them from yesterdays standing in fourth place to fifth place. Their first race looked to be an easy second until a lightweight team, Asami Taniguchi and Rie Hirakawa, of Japan, breezed past them. Carapiet and McCollum agreed that the sailing was frustrating, but are looking forward to tomorrow.
Boardsailing became a beach party today, when Mistral sailors paddled to the beach for a game of Frisbee. No races were sailed, which leaves U.S. Mistral sailors Philip Muller and Erika Kofkin in 16th place and 12th place, respectively.
