Having won the World Championship with a day to spare, Indian Star Nitin Mongia remained on shore on the final day on Friday, packed up his boat and left for the airport to pick up his wife who was coming down from Mumbai to be at the prizegiving.
With Nitin out of the racing, the focus shifted to the battle for second and third overall between Ben Morrison from NZL and Nick Craig from GBR. Lower down the fleet there were other keen tussles to decide the minor places.
After the Principal Race Officer had postponed the start of Race 7 to 1300 to enable the competitors to pack their boats in daylight, the weather gods responded and the notoriously fickle wind started settling down from around 1100 hrs much to the delight of all concerned. The wind settled at around 5-6 knots from 230 degrees and along with the light swells, made for very interesting and challenging sailing conditions.
RACE 7:
The Race Officer laid another of his even start lines and the fleet started ling up with about a minute to go. At the pin end Ramkumar Singh, Naresh Yadav and Gautama Dutta all of India had an incident that saw Naresh Yadav doing penalty turns. Ben Morrison (NZL) had a horrible start and once again had to work his way through the fleet. Rudiger Prinz of Germany sailed away into the early lead from the right hand side of the course and rounded the windward mark in a comfortable 1st place. Gautama Dutta of India rounded in 2nd place after tanking advantage of a good shift from the left hand side. Rob Coutts rounded in 3nd place.
Gautama who was sailing an Indigenous Indian hull was then passed on the downwind leg by Rob Coutts while Rudiger Prinz (GER) sailed away out of danger. Rudiger and Robb Coutts sailed away from the rest of the fleet while Nick Craig (GBR) kept an anxious eye over his shoulder looking for Ben Morrison who was sailing through the fleet once again. Gautama chanced his luck again on the left but did not find his shift and dropped down the pack while Greg Wilcox sailed up into 3rd.
The fleet held their positions down the run while Ben Morrison (NZL) sailed up behind Nick Craig (GBR). Rudier Prinz (GER) held on to win Race 7 followed by Rob Coutts and Greg Wilcox. Ben Morrison finished 5th, enough to take 2nd overall while a disappointed Nick Craig who finished 4th had to be content with 3rd overall.