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When the sailors awoke on Saturday, the fourth and final day of the Velocitek Sponsored Musto Skiff World Championships, there was a full strength Peler wind blowing, and with a 12:00 start planned the full race programme looked under threat as the wind would need to switch to the north Ora breeze and settle before racing.

In classic Garda fashion the Peler switched off at noon and a postponement flag was put up.

As it was the last day of the championships the time of the last signal was scheduled for 15:00 and as the Ora breeze built it soon became apparent that the race team were only going to be able to run a single race. The wind was giving Ian TROTTER (GBR) no chance of turning over STENHOUSE's three-point overnight lead.

Epic Conditions

That said the Ora breeze continued to build to close to 20 knots and, with the chop left over from the morning Peler, the fleet launched into what was likely to be the most epic conditions of the week.

Once again the fleet started cleanly under the I flag and the boats that started at the Committee Boat and headed for the strongest winds in the middle of the lake were favoured with Ali LUXFORD (GBR) leading the charge downwind. Saturday's conditions looked set to yield the best speeds of the week for the Velocitek Vmax competition.

After the first lap LUXFORD had conceded the lead to Neil UPTON-BROWN (GBR), but up the next beat those who had selected the left gate mark gained the advantage. At the final windward mark four boats rounded overlapped and headed off downwind for the final charge.

At the finish Ian TURNBULL (GBR) had taken the advantage to finish first from STENHOUSE, who was chased home hard by UPTON-BROWN and Rick PERKINS (GBR). This final race win gave TURNBULL second overall from TROTTER.

Vmax Comp

The final race was also key in the outcome of the week long Vmax competition. The conditionals were not ideal due to the chop but TURNBULL had managed to lock into some good gusts and pull off a 19.8 knot top speed to win the week prize of a brand new Velocitek SC-1 GPS unit. The daily prize was won by Leigh ALBRECT (GBR) who achieved 19.0 knots to win an SC-1.

After four days of racing in 10-20 knot breezes the 86-strong fleet class had enjoyed ten races and all congratulated STENHOUSE as a very worthy World Champion.

Competitors offers their thanks to Fraglia Vela Malcesine for organizing a fantastic event, the ISAF International Jury for their efforts in keeping the racing fair, the trolley team who were able to get the fleet on and off the water with the minimum of problems, and everyone else who contributed to this fantastic land mark event.

Finally thanks must go to event sponsor Velocitek who contributed an extra dimension with the Vmax competition which was supported with GPS action replays and great prizes in the form of the SC-1 and S-10.

The next big event for the Musto Skiffs is the British Nationals in Lyme Regis and then the class look forward to the next World Championship on Lake Silvaplana in Switzerland.