Heavy lifting in light air; Rolex OCR gets fine start

2.4 MR Fleet.

The Rolex Regatta people felt that yesterday was a perfect day in Coconut Grove -- weatherwise that is. They loved the sunshine and there were 12 knots of breeze, but by late afternoon, light winds blew in just as three of the Paralympic classes were trying to finish the opening day races.

At the end of the day, Canada’s David Wright took two first-place finishes in the Laser Blue Fleet, putting him in second place overall and three points ahead of his prime competitor Chris Dold. Dold, in third place overall (behind Great Britian's Paul Goodison) with a 2-3 in the Yellow fleet, is duking it out with Wright for Canada’s berth at the London 2012 Olympic Games.


Laser Radial, Marit Bouwmeester (Netherlands)

“This is the second part of our Olympic championship qualifiers, and he (Dold) is leading me by three places, so I have to outperform him,” said Wright, adding that Dold was in a different fleet from him today, because the Laser numbers were so large (78) they had to be split into two racing groups, then combined again for the purpose of overall scoring. “When we are in a split fleet like that we have to just make sure to finish with little points. I did it today, so hopefully I can do it again tomorrow.”

“It was a good day—light, but good,” said Chris Dold adding that he has been training against Wright for about five years. “I’m excited and sticking to my guns; if there’s any match racing between us it’s going to be later on in the week.”

One team who doesn’t have to worry about snagging an Olympic berth is Miami’s own Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih, who finished a solid 3-4 yesterday in the Star class to take second overall on tied points with Sweden’s leader Fredrik Loof/Max Salminen. They were named to the USA’s 2012 Olympic Sailing Team after they recently finished third in their World Championship. “This is not a major regatta for us in the same regard, but we definitely want to train and improve our standing in the World Cup,” said Fatih, adding that this will be his first time to the Olympics after four times trying and Mendelblatt’s second (in Laser class).

US Sailing’s Rolex Miami OCR, established in 1990, is open to boats competing in events chosen for the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions. The 10 Olympic classes for 2012 are: Laser Radial (women), Laser (men), Finn (men), Men’s RS:X, Women’s RS:X, 49er (men), Men’s 470, Women’s 470, Star (men) and Elliot 6m (women). The three Paralympic classes are: 2.4mR (open), SKUD (mixed) and Sonar (mixed).

Medals will be awarded to the top three boats in each Olympic and Paralympic class on Saturday, January 28.

A complete roster of competitors can be viewed at the event website http://rmocr.ussailing.org, where real-time racecourse blogging, commentary and fan interaction, regatta results, photos and news updates have been integrated into a live coverage platform.


Laser race start.

Photo By: Rolex / Daniel Forster