OK Dinghy Worlds 08.12.2017

From your President

Greetings all OK Dinghy sailors from sunny Australia. I can’t believe that six months has passed since we were in Barbados at the World Championships. It was certainly a memorable event, great location and very challenging sailing. It was also a great privilege to be elected as President at the AGM in Barbados after many years of active OK Dinghy sailing and involvement with the class association in Australia.

I thought it worth sharing a little bit about myself as not everyone will either know or have met me. I live in Melbourne, specifically Sandringham, Victoria, Australia. I am a member of the Black Rock Yacht Club, where I am also the Secretary. I started sailing OKs in 1980 at the age of 16 years and have sailed them continuously ever since, always owning at least one OK. I sailed my first Australian OK Nationals in 1981 at Bateman’s Bay, south of Sydney. I didn’t qualify for the 1982 Worlds at Black Rock; sailed my first Interdominions at Takapuna in 1983 and my first Worlds in Sonderborg, Denmark in 1984. Since that time, I have sailed 30 Australian Championships and 15 World Championships.

The summer season in Australia is well underway and I will be travelling to Southport on the Gold Coast in Queensland for the Australian Championships. So far we have 40 entries. OK sailing in Queensland has seen amazing growth over the past 18 months after starting from nothing to over 20 boats actively sailing from Southport Yacht Club and new boats being built from the Australian Delfs mould.

In February I will travel to Auckland for the Interdominions and New Zealand Nationals at Waketere. This is the venue for the 2019 Worlds and the event in 2018 is being used as a bit of a test event and will be sailed at the same time of year as the Worlds in February 2019.

Finally I wanted to mention that OKDIA is building into a strong and professional association supporting a growing and dynamic class in the OK Dinghy. The class is currently in great shape and I have to acknowledge the leadership and vision of the past President Bo Teglers and his officers and committee on the great work they have done. I hope I can meet the expectations of all OK Dinghy sailors and play my part in continuing to grow and strengthen OK Dinghy sailing worldwide.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year and I look forward to catching up with OK Dinghy friends in Australia, New Zealand and at the Worlds in Warnemunde, Germany in 2018.

Best wishes, Mark
Mark Jackson
OKDIA President

From the Secretary

Another busy, and encouraging, year is drawing to a close. Your Committee hope it was fun and rewarding for everyone who ventured to an international event to enjoy the OK camaraderie and competition.

We have a lot going on next year with the Worlds in one of the class’s favourite venues in Warnemunde and the Europeans in Bandol to support the amazing growth in the French class. Both will be great events to remember.

We have the coming seasons nearly fully booked as well and I am delighted to report that the 2019 European Championship will be at Kiel as part of Kieler Woche. It has been a long time since we had a major championship there so I am sure it will be well supported. As no nominiations were received for the event, which is traditionally a week-long event in the year that the Worlds in the Southern Hemispshere, the OKDIA Committee sought out the venue and negotiated with the Kiel organisers for the four day event.

If you are planning to attend any of the events listed here it will help the organisers, and encourage other sailors, if you could sign up on the Interested Competitors‘ pages please. It really does make a difference to know how many boats we can expect.

Preparations for the 2018 World Championship in Warnemunde, Germany are well underway. The programme and preliminary details have been published on the event website at 2018.okworlds.org.

Pre-entry is now at 77, and we expect this to increase once we are into the formal entry process. Please keep an eye on the website for further updates.

Training Camp in Bandol in March 2018

If anyone would like to take part in an organised training camp in Bandol, the venue for the 2018 European Championship (and the 2018 Mediterranean Championship), top Dutch coach Han Beverwijk is offering a 5-day camp early in February/March.

The dates are flexible to suit those who wish to attend.

At the end of February Han is running a camp for the Dutch Optimist Team at Bandol. Having all his equipment already over there he is able to offer the OK class a training camp for a €80 per person a day. Being organised off-season, the costs for renting apartments etc will be low. The 5-day camp will cost €400.

Han is a seasoned coach involved in many Dutch Olympic campaigns. He is fully committed to singlehanded sailing and he has done a lot of sailing in the OK Dinghy and the Finn.

The camp is open to anyone who wants to learn and willing to put in the effort. Han has a lot of training material, which can be discussed on shore, when the weather is nasty or people need a break from training.

If you are interested please contact: hrijnink@gmail.com

47 sailors have so far signed up for the 2018 OK Dinghy European Championship in Bandol, France in September.

This is a great opportunity to get in some late season competition in a warm climate at a geat and friendly OK club. For those thinking of going to New Zealand for the 2019 World Championship it is ideal for a final training regatta prior to shippng boats in November.

Check out the website at 2018.okeuropeans.org for updates and details as they become available.

There has been a lot of information added to the website for the 2019 OK Dinghy World Championship at Wakatare BC, New Zealand. The website can be found at 2019.okworlds.org

Pre-entry is currently at 58 and we are expecting a larger than normal entry for this event. The club and the local fleet have huge plans to make sure this is an event to remember and planning is already at an advanced stage.

The Notice of Race is expected to be published early in 2018 to allow the longest possible planning time. However the provisonal schedule and other details have already been published on the website.

World Ranking List November 2017

Results (top 20 from 523). Download full list here.
1 Greg Wilcox NZL 566 999.75 15
2 Tomasz Gaj POL 1 898.69 10
3 Henrik Kofoed Larsen DEN 1487 890.91 10
4 Martin von Zimmermann GER 803 868.35 13
5 Pawel Pawlaczyk POL 14 860.45 8
6 Jim Hunt GBR 11 822.48 6
7 Oliver Gronholz GER 783 813.78 8
8 Ralf Tietje GER 78 781.71 11
9 Andreas Pich GER 7 780.14 14
10 Mark Jackson AUS 768 772.54 7
11 Thomas Hansson-Mild SWE 100 765.02 11
12 Ask Askholm DEN 22 745.84 10
13 Luke O’Connell NZL 546 743.67 6
14 Bo Petersen DEN 1431 729.57 9
15 Sonke Behrens GER 778 689.14 7
16 Jonas Borjesson SWE 2830 685.63 10
17 Andre Budzien GER 71 678.34 7
18 Charlie Cumbley GBR 1 677.52 6
19 Bo Reker Andersen DEN 1 667.70 12
20 Jorg Rademacher GER 775 658.04 8

Nick Craig secures record fifth OK Dinghy world crown in Barbados

The Barbados wind beats to the same rhythm of the boom-box buses that rumble past the Barbados Yacht Club each day. It starts, it stops, it turns around, all the time going in no particular direction. You pick it up and take it one way only to find it is taking you in the wrong direction. It pulsates like the booming bass beat. It is hot and humid.

For the majority of sailors at the 2017 OK Dinghy World Championships in Barbados, it has been hard to make sense of the wind, but one person has shown an uncanny ability to be in the right place every time, and sail his boat faster than anyone else.

Discarding a third place in the 79-boat fleet Nick Craig, from Britain, dominated the series for perhaps his most convincing win ever. This is his fifth OK Dinghy world crown and perhaps the sweetest yet as he becomes the first person in the 60 year history of the class to win five world titles.

The defending champion, Jim Hunt, sailed an impressive series as well, never below fifth, and put together a scoreline that in most years would have easily won him the title. Third place Luke O’Connell, from New Zealand, led a strong Kiwi challenge with five boats inside the top ten.

Only one race was possible on the final day in perhaps the most capricious wind of the week. Jørgen Svendsen, of Denmark, led the race all the way until the final beat when Hunt and Craig sneaked past as the wind started to go even more patchy and shifty. Hunt took his second victory of the week, while O’Connell took third as Svendsen was an early starter.

The race team tried to start the final race, but the conditions and the time were against them. Eventually they admitted defeat and at 14.50, the end of the regatta was signalled and the start of the race to the beach to get the first boat into the containers.

O’Connell said, “It’s been a tough week, I am pleased to come away with third. The middle of the week was pretty bad for me. I don’t know what happened there really. But it was great sailing here. Nick and Jim sailed super well and nick definitely deserved to win.”

Paying tribute to Craig, Hunt said “It’s fantastic isn’t it. He just outsailed every one all week. He’s just been a bit more on it all week, starting better, being in the right place at the right time. He hasn’t really missed anything. He was quick downwind, there were not really any holes in his game, which is a bit of a shame, as if he hadn’t been here I would have looked quite good.”

“But it was great fun, I’ve had a great time.”

New World Champion, Craig, said, “Fantastic day, absolutely delighted. It was always a little tense as I needed a 12th which is just the kind of thing where you could be too conservative and end up having a 20th, so I got an average start which was just good enough, got a lane, and went up to about fifth at the windward mark and then just sailed really conservatively and just sailed near Jim as well partly because he always goes the right way and because if he was deep or going well then I would be matching him. So it worked out really nicely.”

“I think it was a tricky week because it was very shifty and we had weed challenges, but overall it’s just a fantastic place so sail. It’s so warm, the water is warm, beer is cold; it’s fantastic. I really enjoyed myself.”

Next year the class heads to Warnemunde in Germany, for the 2018 World Championship, one of the classes favourite venues.

Even as the OK Dinghies were packed away in their containers to begin their long journeys home, their spaces on the beach were slowly being filled with Finns for the start of the Finn World Masters on Friday.

Final results after nine races
1 GBR 2195 NICK CRAIG 10,0 1 1 1 2 (3) 1 1 1 2
2 GBR 11 JIM HUNT 22,0 2 3 4 (5) 1 4 5 2 1
3 NZL 546 LUKE O’CONNELL 42,0 3 2 2 4 (bfd) 17 3 8 3
4 NZL 545 STEVE McDOWELL 53,0 4 16 8 (17) 4 6 4 4 7
5 NZL 517 PAUL RHODES 55,0 5 9 5 6 6 3 14 7 (20)
6 AUS 749 ROGER BLASSE 56,0 10 15 3 7 5 9 (22) 3 4
7 NZL 551 MARK PERROW 64,0 20 4 7 3 2 (dsq) 2 14 12
8 GBR 2191 CHRIS TURNER 65,0 6 8 (25) 8 8 8 9 9 9
9 NZL 566 GREG WILCOX 78,0 9 10 (20) 10 11 10 6 16 6
10 DEN 3 JORGEN SVENDSEN 96,0 19 14 14 1 23 5 8 12 (bfd)

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