- Tuesday was the RS Aero Worlds long anticipated long distance race.
The race included a standard lap with a beat and run followed by a downwind slalom of five screaming broad reaches back and forth across the whole width of the Gorge.
The fleet then continued on a mega run towards Home Valley before a goliath upwind home assisted by the region’s great peak’s snowmelt producing the fast flowing Columbia Gorge River current to make the long beat home manageable and fast.
The RS Aero 7s were first off again and one of the lightest sailors, Andy Mack (USA), led to the top mark. As the fleet progressed downwind the conditions became wilder with ferocious gusts and larger steeper more treacherous waves.
Noah Rees (GBR) scored a prefect 10/10 transom over bow dismount on the bottom run as waves built up at the leeward end of the long Gorge fetch against the current.
Dalton Bergan (USA) edged through to take the win with Jay Renehan (USA) in 2nd.
Upwind grafters Jack Miller (GBR) and Peter Barton (GBR) came through to 3rd and 4th, mostly backing the current and high starboard angle on the right. Stasi Burzycki came through to 5th with Andy Mack hanging onto 6th.
The RS Aero 5s sailed a slightly shorter course without the bottom loop. Dieter Creitz (USA) continued his run of bullets, Ryan Zehnder (USA) took 2nd and Yannick Gloster (USA) finished 3rd.
This was a big day out for the RS Aero 9s with full power reaches and exhilarating runs. Seattle’s Dan Falk (USA) took another 1st with Keith Hammer (USA) 2nd and Michael Johnson (USA) 3rd.
Overall this leaves Dalton with a good lead in the RS Aero 7s going into the lay-day. A three way ties follows with it all to play for between Barton, Rees and Renehan.
No change in the standings in the RS Aero 5s with Creitz, Zehnder then Gloster.
In the RS Aero 9s the top three are Falk, Hammer then Johnson, all USA.
Wednesday is the mid week lay day.
RS Aero 5 – Leaders after 7 races (13 entries)
1st 1643 Dieter Creitz [2] 1 2 1 1 1 1 – – 7 pts
2nd 1641 Ryan Zehnder 1 2 1 3 [4] 2 2 – – 11 pts
3rd 1131 Yannick Gloster 7 6 [8] 2 2 3 3 – – 23 pts
4th 4142 Caroline Young 9 8 [12] 4 3 4 4 – – 32 pts
5th 4166 Dylan Williams 4 3 3 9 6 10 [14/RET] – – 35T pts
6th 4163 Jacques Kerrest [10] 7 5 7 5 5 6 – – 35T pts
7th 4029 Roy Van Maanen 3 4 6 5 [14/DSQ] 6 14/DNS – – 38 pts
8th 3900 Robyn Ratcliffe 5 5 7 8 11 11 [14/DNS] – – 47 pts
9th 4030 Eddie Lockey 11 [12] 4 10 8 8 7 – – 48 pts
10th 1480 Alexander Baldwin 8 [10] 10 6 7 9 9/SCP – – 49 pts
RS Aero 7 – Leaders after 7 races (33 entries)
1st 4057 Dalton Bergan 2 2 [5] 1 1 1 1 – – 8 pts
2nd 4155 Peter Barton 6 1 3 [8] 5 2 4 – – 21T pts
3rd 4173 Noah Rees 4 3 1 3 4 6 [14] – – 21T pts
4th 4054 Jay Renehan 3 6 4 [9] 2 4 2 – – 21T pts
5th 2019 Carl Buchan 1 8 2 12 7 7 [19] – – 37 pts
6th 4115 Gary Ratcliffe 7 [17] 12 2 9 10 7 – – 47 pts
7th 4113 Jack Miller 5 4 18 14 11 [22/SCP] 3 – – 55 pts
8th 3251 W. Andrew Loe III 9 5 11 [22] 3 15 17 – – 60 pts
9th 3215 Andrew Holdsworth 16 20 [28] 6 6 5 8 – – 61T pts
10th 1514 Andy Mack 12 12 [15] 7 12 12 6 – – 61T pts
RS Aero 9 – Leaders after 7 races (6 entries)
1st 3653 Dan Falk 1 1 1 [5] 2 1 1 – – 7 pts
2nd 3256 Keith Hammer 2 2 [4] 4 4 2 2 – – 16 pts
3rd 1377 Michael Johnson 4 3 2 1 [5] 4 3 – – 17 pts
4th 4164 Madhavan Thirumalai 5 5 3 2 1 3 [7/RET] – – 19 pts
5th 1872 Derek Bottles 3 4 5 3 3 5 [7/RET] – – 23 pts
6th 4165 Boris Mezhibovskiy 6 6 6 6 6 6 [7/RET] – – 36 pts
