OK Dinghy World Championship - Day 2 - Four races and four winners

Nick Craig continues to lead the 2024 Tan Lines OK Dinghy World Championship at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, Brisbane, Australia, after two more races on Tuesday in likely the windiest conditions of the week. Fellow Brit, Andy Davis remains in second with New Zealand’s Steve McDowell up to third. Other race wins went to New Zealand’s Mark Perrow and Australia’s Roger Blasse.

The day produced a breeze building from 10-18 knots through the day. It started very cloudy and grey but as the breeze built the clouds dispersed to provide perfect conditions for the second race followed by a fantastic reach back to the club.

In Race 3, Craig and Perrow battled round with Perrow having the early advantage. Craig put the pedal down on the final lap to win from Perrow with Davis in third. In the second group, McDowell led from start to finish, extending for a huge win from Australia’s Mark Jackson and Brent Williams.

The breeze picked up for Race 4 and Blasse started well and never looked back, extending downwind for a big win from Craig and McDowell. Perrow dominated the other group to lead round from Davis and Sweden’s Patric Mure.

A first and a second leaves Craig three points ahead of Davis who scored a third and a second. But it was definitely a day for the Kiwis with wins for McDowell and Perrow, while setting up a close fight at the front.

Blasse said, “Today was a little windier, which suited me better than yesterday. It was probably 10-12 knots in the first race and slightly increasing during the race. I got a fourth and had some good downwind speed so caught a lot of guys up after the first beat.

“The second race had another 5 knots on top, so it suited me even better. I got way at the boat end and did some short tacks. I didn’t go a long way to the right but managed to get in front of the fleet and probably led by a good 50 metres. Then of course I did well downhill to open the gap a bit. So that was the race.

“There was a bit of weed management out there keeping the rudder clean, but otherwise It was a great day of racing and the sail in was magnificent. It was a good day with a fourth and a first.”

On the days ahead: “I think it’s going to lighten off a bit and it will be hard to keep in front of some of those British guys. They seem to go well in that stuff, but I guess we’ll give it a go.

“But it’s exciting. The racing has been fantastic. The standard of competitor out there is just magnificent. And it’s just good fun.”

McDowell said, “It was another pretty tough day. Very close at the top. I was lucky in the first race I got out quite a big lead and extended from there. It seems that the person who gets in front can pick the shifts and make the most of it.

“In the second race was also tough, going round the gybe mark I did a bad job and hit the mark and managed to snap the tiller extension. So I did half the race with half a tiller extension, which was challenging but pretty happy to end up third.

“So overall pretty good day for me, but pretty tough. Looking forward to tomorrow.”

The opening series concludes Wednesday with two more races scheduled, while the reserve day on Thursday now becomes a lay day. Racing continues until Saturday.

Results after 4 races
1 GBR 2261 Nick Craig 3
2 GBR 11 Andy Davis 5
3 NZL 11 Steve McDowell 6
4 AUS 1 Roger Blasse 10
5 AUS 825 Mike Williams 11
6 AUS 15 David Clark 15
7 NZL 592 Rod Davis 15
8 SWE 73 Patric Mure 16
9 NZL 4 Mark Perrow 17
10 GBR 44 Chris Turner 19