Tasar Pre-world has been held on July 22nd-24th at Toyota Industry Kaiyoh Yacht Harbor. This event was held as a test event for the world championship that will be held in the same season next year.
35 boats sailed in the regatta, including 4 oversea teams, aiming at obtaining perspectives to the world championship next year.
On Friday afternoon, training sessions, starting and course-rounding practices were held under 20 knots wind. After sailing, sailing clinics and Q&A session were held with Paul Ridgeway, 2011 world champion, and Peter Ellis coming from Australia.
On Saturday, the race day 1, the first race was initiated with stable sea breeze in the afternoon. In gentle wind, compared to the previous day, with remaining choppy waves, three races were completed in light to middle wind ranges.
Almost no wind was there and AP flag has risen at the harbor in Sunday morning, the race day 2, the race was postponed in 90 minutes. Two races were finally completed in the day 2, starting in winds coming from SW, shifty light winds of 7-8 knots.
The winner is Yohai Ikeda and Daigo Washio, who got constantly good places in all races: 4-1-2-1-2 and successfully maintained the leading place of the first day into the final result.
Second place: Hiroaki Sato and Yasuaki Muragishi,
Third place: Paul and Bronwyn Ridgeway (Melbourne,Victoria).
Master Class winner: Hiroaki Sato and Yasuaki Muragishi,
Grand Master Class winner: Ikuya and Noriko Tanaka,
Super Grand Master Class winner: Paul and Bronwyn Ridgeway,
First Lady: Bronwyn Ridgeway
The winner’ skipper Yohei Ikeda’s comments:
– What was good points for you to win this regatta?
Three good points. Boat settings, course strategy and reaching sailing. Setting the forestay short (4140mm) worked very well for us. With the current settings, we were able to avoid stall very easily and recover the boat speed very quickly even after the stall (but the beating angle was not so good). About the course strategy, the crew did good job to watch wind conditions such as frequent wind shifts and gusty winds. In reaching, we tried to keep sheeting of the main sail and jib slightly tighter than usual so as to be almost overtrimed to get boat speed.
– Which race conditions have you taken care of the most during this two-day regatta?
Stall by waves and lulls. I told the crew to trim the jib very frequently. I have also tried to be always aware of the windward mark direction in upwind legs. The wind was always very shifty, and the race committee changed the course almost every upwind legs. I assumed the mark direction after the course change should be coincided with the following average wind direction and chose the tack closer to the mark as much as possible.
– What is your plan to prepare for the next worlds coming in 12 months?
I cannot sail fast with the current setting in strong wind over 6 m/s (12 knots). I wish to find settings and sailing technique suitable in strong wind by the next world championship.
The pre-world championship, 5 races in two days with good wind conditions, has been closed successfully. It was very fruitful test event both for the competitors and the world championship organizing committee.
Only one year remaining to the world championships. The official website has been renewed recently to upload more contents for the event.
See you at Gamagori in the next summer!
Pre-Worlds RESULTS
Photo Gallery (Junichi Hirai / BULKHEAD Magazine JAPAN)