by Doug
They held
everyone on shore waiting for the breeze to fill in. We went out at about 1:00
and then sat and waited some more. With a few minutes before the 3:00 cutoff,
the gold fleet finally got off. Here's the moment just before the gun taken by
Brett from a different angle. It's a great example of why Robert, in the
middle, gets off the line so well.
Robert went
left with good height, tacked on the first shift, and led at every mark to win.
There are a lot of people very happy to see him win. It was really an honor to
have him back sailing Lasers.
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| Robert wins the last race and his 9th Worlds. I took lots of video, hope some of it's usable. |
That picture of the start is an inspiration! Looks like Scheidt had a nice gap to leeward, pulled the trigger a bit earlier than the others, and is bearing away to accelerate first.
ReplyDeleteActually, the video will tell a different story. The fellow below him from Korea headed up and from where I was standing, it looked like he was getting too close to Robert. For a moment it looked like this would be a problem. The Korean then tacked away leaving Robert a good lane.
DeleteWhat I find amazing is that every sailor in this picture is in the gold fleet of a Laser world championship - they're the very best of the very best. And yet, the picture shows how one has better timing and better form. It's a treat to see this so graphically.
Also, I had a good chat with Robert about his rigging and starts and will put this in a separate post.
It's actually haed to believe that some of the surrounding boats made it into the same fleet. Looks as though he's on a different plane.
ReplyDeleteGreat blogging Doug, keep up the great work!
Thanks. Robert was clearly the fasted person here. But as his scores showed, there were a lot of fast sailors and missing just one shift could easily make for a poor finish. Being smart and a little lucky was also really important.
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