"Friday September 12, 2014. This is a two race day and the weather cooperated with the wind filling in early. At the start of Race 6 the wind speed is 8 knots from 205 degrees, similar to other days and the course is set slightly NW of Brooks |Island. The start goes off on time at 11:35. At the first rounding of the weather mark, the leaders are the usual suspects At the end of race six it is Chris Maas - USA 254 1st, Mikey Radziejowski - USA 248 -2nd, and Robin Wood - GBR 329 - 3rd. Chris and Mikey have leads of hundreds of yards and seem to be in a league of their own. After waiting about a half hour for the rest of the fleet to finish race 7 gets started.
Race 7 - this is the number of races needed to make a proper championship. After this race one throw-out is allowed and with two more races scheduled to complete the championship there is the possibility of two throw-outs, potentially changing the outcome. As the afternoon progresses the wind builds as usual with 13 knots at the start and building to 18 knots by the end of the race. Notably missing this race is Robin Wood. At the end of Race 7 it is Mikey Radziejowski 1st, Chris Maas 2nd, and Peter Ullmann - GER 79 - 3rd. The finishes like all the weather legs are fascinating to watch from the weather mark RIB as the approaches are different with Chris Maas overstanding the layline and footing fast while Mikey tacks sooner, pointing higher. In the 7th race they split tacks at the bottom mark with Chris going to the right side if the course with maybe slightly less wind and waves while Mikey who has a weight advantage of possibly 15 lbs goes left into more wind. At this point in the regatta the standings with one throw-out are: Mikey 1st, Chris 2nd, Alistair Warren - GBR 17 3rd, David Clark - USA 256 4th.
Del Olsen got into International Canoes at the same time I did, in the early 1980's. Unlike I, who stopped competing seriously (which I admit wasn't super-serious) around 1995 - with a short return on the cheap in early 2000's, Del has remained in the class and is the organizer of this SF Worlds (as well as the 1993 SF Worlds) and one of several competitors over 60 years in age. Here is the video interview with Del from the folks at Pressure Drop who also put together the Mikey Radziejowski featured in a previous post:
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