Issue date
New Zealand sailors remain in title contention after four races at the OK Dinghy world championships in Lyme Regis, England.
Steve McDowell leads the Kiwi charge in 10th overall in the 143-boat fleet, followed by compatriots Greg Wilcox (20th), Mark Perrow (33rd), Simon Probert (40th), Gordon Sims (44th), and Marc Grise (60th).
Five-time world champion Nick Craig (GBR) has taken the early lead and is on level points with last year’s runner up, Niklas Edler, from Sweden, with Denmark’s Jens Eckardt in third. Race wins went to Craig, Eckardt, France’s Valerian Lebrun and Britain’s Matt Howard.
The breeze returned to Lyme Bay for the second day of the championship with two great races in 10-16 knots and long rolling waves. The sun made a few brief appearances through the low cloud, but beyond a few brief delays the racing got away fairly promptly.
Greg Wilcox is 20th overall agfter the first two days of the 2023 OK Dinghy world championships. Photos / Robert Deaves
The first group had a couple of false starts which knocked out a few of the favourites under the black flag, but when it restarted Andrew Mills and Paul Childs led at the top mark in each group. There were not many changes through the fleet, but Craig and Eckardt came through in their groups to both take a second race win. Mills and Andy Davis picked up seconds while Edler and Henry Wetherell took a third each.
Defending champion Charlie Cumbley had rounded well up in his group but broke his tiller extension and decided to head ashore to replace it.
The breeze and waves increased for the second race with Cumbley leading the first group and Matt Howard leading the second, after being black flagged in the first race. However, while Howard extended throughout for the race win, Cumbley had a much tighter battle. Edler led for much of the race only to capsize on the gybe at the penultimate mark and let three boats through. Lebrun took advantage and sailed through for the win while Edler recovered to second with Andre Budzien third.
In the other group, McDowell crossed second with Wetherell again third.
“A good day today and the weather was a lot better than we had yesterday," McDowell said.
"We had more breeze, and the courses were really good. The other nice thing was that the waves downwind were really nice and helped me to catch up a little bit. I got a couple of good results which I’ll be keeping so a good day for me and certainly I think everyone out there enjoyed it.”
Two more races are scheduled for day 3 with the championship continuing until Saturday (NZ time). - with OK Dinghy International Association
Standings and results after day two of the 2023 OK Dinghy world championship hosted by Lyme Regis Sailing Club:
1st: Nick Craig (GBR) 1 (28) 1 4 - 6 points
2nd: Niklas Edler (Swe) 1 (16) 3 2 - 6 pts
3rd: Jens Eckardt (Den) 5 1 1 (73DSQ) - 7 pts
10th: Steve McDowell (NZ) 6 (26) 7 2 - 15 pts
20th: Greg Wilcox (NZ) (18) 8 15 7 - 30 pts
33rd: Mark Perrow (NZ) (40) 17 9 19 - 45 pts
40th: Simon Probert (NZ) 17 (43) 18 21 - 56 pts
44th: Gordon Sims (NZ) (27) 19 24 18 - 61 pts
60th: Marc Grise (NZ) 26 (41) 38 20 - 84 pts
Full results here.
