International Canoe World Championship 2011 Travemünde / GER

jimc · **Posted:** Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:32 pm

Post from Willy Clark on SA

Quote:

Congratulations to Chris Maas the new International Canoe World Champion.

Chris and Peter Ullman sure had those Maas hulls going like anything. There didn't seem to be a point of sail that they weren't really fast on.

The only person who seemed to have upwind boat speed to match those two was David who was almost in a different time zone upwind and reaches like something from another planet.

Phil Robin and Colin Brown made very strong showings in their Morrisons. Colin in particular was absurdly fast downwind while Phil was probably the events most consistent sailor.

Alistair Warren sailed and excellent regatta in Dragonfly. He got his heavy air drill sorted out today and took 3rd. Well done Alistair.

Dad had crazy straight line speed today and had multiple flashes of brilliance throughout the event. However shoulder surgery in the winter kept Dad out of the boat a lot and the rust showed.

Roger Regitz had GER 78 moving along just fine particularly when the breeze came up. Unfortunately Roger's rig came down midway through race 4 ending his regatta early. Too bad.

John Ellis' new boat certainly has jets, but he spent the event dealing with new boat teething issues that have plagued us all at one point. Once John moves the rig forward and makes some other adjustments Blue Horizon should be one hell of a boat.

Mark Goodchild and Simon Allen are still right there. I knew I had boat speed on them but I also knew that if I didn't sail a really good race they would still beat me. Those guys are both just really good sailors.

Today went full nuclear and the heavy air boys, namely Chris Hampe and myself, came out to play. Chris aboard Monkey is a force to be reckoned with in a blow while Kaito and I can still hammer in the heavy stuff with the best of them. My spreader bracket breaking in half on the second beat slowed me down a bit but the rig stayed up and got me to the finish line. Boat was never perfect but it's always been a warrior. When it got light I really didn't feel like I had quite the same boat speed as the really quick guys but I did the best I could with what I had.

The racing was really really tight. It was a lot of fun being out there sailing with all these guys.

New York Cup tomorrow. Hayden if the trophy isn't here I'm going to knock you down and steal your lunch money when you get to San Fransisco.

Looking forward to 2014 worlds in Richmond!

Willy

H Virtue · **Posted:** Fri Jul 29, 2011 10:30 pm

Congratulations Chris its a great achievement to be proud of

Roger · **Posted:** Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:54 pm

Some other facts of the worlds:

8 of the 30 ICs (including ODs) were sailed by sailors under 25 years old
6 of the 30 were sailed by female sailors (all from germany)

There was a german on every podium:
Peter: 2nd of the ICs
Arne: 2nd of the ACs
Frederik: 3rd of the ODs

British Canoe Sailors like to dance to AC/DC ....

Roger
(now USA 246)

Colin Newman · **Posted:** Sat Aug 06, 2011 10:14 pm

And, from someone unable to attend this year looking at the results it is striking that of the 30 ICs, 10% of the fleet had the Surname 'Clark', 10% 'Beers' and 10% 'Gillen'! There were also 2 'Steinmann' and 2 (unrelated I assume) 'Brown'. Keep it in the family! Is IC sailing in the gene pool, especially in Germany and the USA?!

The metaphorical 'international family' of Canoe sailors is also striking. Among all the competitors, there is hardly any name I do not recognise and have never met from three or more years ago. In a way this is not a good thing as it suggests a lack of newcomers joining the class as the old one's like me fade away; though it was actually my wife's health issues that stooped me going to Germany this year rather than my own decent down the old age curve, as graciously as I can manage, still in 'Extended Play' (GBR 295).

I enjoyed reading the reports and congratulations to all who made it to the podium and the US sailors for going home with the New York Cup.

Colin Newman

The International Canoe

International Canoe World Championship 2011 Travemünde / GER

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