Oman Open Worlds Videos - Day 3

By Doug

The videos that I took were with a pocket camera from a small, unstable boat. We're fortunate to have much better videos courtesy of Brett Beyer who had a much better camera and a bigger boat. This is pretty cool because we get to see how some of the best small boat sailors in the world position themselves on such a competitive starting line.

And as a bonus, we get to hear Brett's comments about the two sailors that he was coaching: Kristian Ruth (NOR) and James Espey (IRL). These two are easy to see on the line because they both have sponsor markings on their sails. We have Brett's videos from 4 days, and will end with the gold medal race won by Robert Scheidt.

We start with James (192703) fighting for a position at a very crowded pin. He jibes and then tacks further up the line to find a hole. General recall.

Next, we see James getting out of a jam to get a bad start, and there's another recall.

Here, James has an OK start, gets off the line well, and finished the race in 12th.

In this next video, we have Kristian Ruth (204758) holding his position and getting a good start. General recall.

Here we have Robert Scheidt (205239) sailing on port behind Kristian and then starting 3 boats to windward. Both started well. Kristian finished 15th and Robert 2nd.

In the second race of the day, we see Kristian fighting for his place, and another recall.

This start is from the committee boat end under a black flag. As Brett says, Kristian does not get a great start. He finished 28th in this race.

In this start, we see Robert sailing on port looking for a hole that he found about 10 boats to windward. Kristian starts well but is unable to hold his lane and has to tack. He finished 28th. Towards the end, we can see Robert with the yellow hat. He had a good lane off the line and went on to win the race.