Championship leaders, Aussies Rob and Nicole Douglass started the penultimate day of the Tasar World Championships with a four point lead. Two races later they finished the day with a five point lead.
Job done . . . well not quite, but the Douglasses have massivly shifted the balance of the final day – with two races possible – to their advantage.
Their closest challengers for the title, Britain’s James Peters and Charlie Darling, had hoped to reduce that four point gap going into the final day, instead they saw the gap widen, and they have also come under pressure from the top team of the day, James and Tara Burman.
The Burmans had a 2 – 1 score Friday to close the gap on second placed Peters and Darling to just one point.
Also making moves in the right direction were Rick Longbottom and Darryl Bentley with a 1 – 3 scoreline to move into fourth place overall.
In fact these four teams dominated the first four places in both races.
Racing got underway after a long posponement for the sea-breeze to arrive, once it did two highly combative races were run.
The first race (R9) got away under a black-flag and it was obvious that the Douglasses were not going to let Peters and Darling repeat their previous day’s hat-trick of wins.
Peters went out to the left and Douglass quickly moved to join them. At the windward mark Peters led with the Burmans second and the Douglasses third.
It was not until the second beat that Peters lost the lead, with Longbottom and Bentley rounding ahead of Holland’s Constantijn Udo and Jan Kellermann.
On the approach to the finish, Longbottom, Douglass and Peters had gone high covering each other, with the Burmans now leading the lower placed chasing pack.
Longbottom eventually peeled away for the line, leaving Peters and Douglass to their match-race, and took the race 9 win.
The Burmans were able to sail through to snatch second, and then the Douglasses took third with Peters and Darling fourth.
It was quickly into race 10, and from the start the Douglasses, Burmans and Peters and Darling were watching each other.
At the windward mark the Burmans rounded ahead of Richard Marsden and Emma Toman GBR, with the Douglass in 5th and Peters 7th.
James and Tara Burman then sailed away and by the final gybe mark had a minute lead ahead of the Douglasses, with Peters in fifth.
It stayed that way to the finish line, only Peters and Darling managing to snatch fourth.
Two final races are scheduled for Saturday if the wind plays ball.
Peters and Darling need to win both races with the Douglasses worse than third, but the Burmans could be the joker in the pack . . .
Tasar – 2019 World Championship – Day 4 Race leaders, 10 races 2 discards (67 entries)
1st AUS 2848 Rob Douglass and Nicole Douglass 1 2 2 2 DNF 2 2 -3 3 2 – – 16 pts
2nd GBR 2877 James Peters and Charlie Darling 4 -5 3 3 -5 1 1 1 4 4 – – 21 pts
3rd AUS 2942 James Burman and Tara Burman -7 6 1 1 DNF 3 3 5 2 1 – – 22 pts
4th AUS 2813 Rick Longbottom and Darryl Bentley -8 1 6 6 1 5 -17 7 1 3 – – 30 pts
5th USA 2398 Michael Karas and Molly Jackson 2 -10 4 4 6 6 6 4 -21 7 – – 39 pts
6th AUS 2831 Paul Ridgway and Bronwyn Ridgway 3 7 5 BFD 3 7 -31 10 6 5 – – 46 pts
7th AUS 2857 Craig McPhee and Gillian Berry 5 4 9 7 4 -15 -25 2 7 9 – – 47 pts
8th AUS 2925 Hugh Tait and Anna Tait -17 12 -16 5 9 4 4 6 10 10 – – 60 pts
9th AUS 2969 Heather Macfarlane and Chris Payne 9 8 11 10 -13 8 9 -14 8 6 – – 69 pts
10th USA 2916 Jay Renehan and Lisa 14 3 8 BFD 8 11 11 16 -24 11 – – 82 pts
11th NED 2876 Willem Schutte and Luna Schutte 6 11 10 -20 18 9 7 13 -22 15 – – 89 pts
12th AUS 2922 Lloyd Lissiman and Skip Lissiman 22 15 7 BFD 2 16 15 9 -25 14 – – 100 pts
13th AUS 2911 Peter Davies and Pia Lehtonen-Davies 11 17 15 9 11 -32 10 -22 14 19 – – 106 pts
14th AUS 2964 Gary Ratcliffe and Robyn Ratcliffe 18 9 12 8 7 12 28 -31 -30 13 – – 107 pts
15th GBR 2815 David Sayce and Fiona Sayce 10 27 14 14 -31 14 5 UFD 17 25 – – 126 pts
16th GBR 735 Richard Marsden and Emma Toman 26 16 23 16 16 -28 -36 24 9 8 – – 138 pts
17th USA 2691 Chris Lanzinger and Molly Lanzinger 19 -26 24 19 DNC 10 21 12 23 17 – – 145 pts
18th AUS 2953 Ben Walker and Cath Walker 30 -31 25 16 19 13 18 -32 13 22 – – 156 pts
19th GER 2972 Stephan Heim and Susanne Schwickert 13 20 -32 26 25 20 8 30 16 -44 – – 158 pts
20th GBR 2909 Rupert Stock and Stephanie Stock 25 13 -30 27 14 29 16 20 15 DNF – – 159 pts
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