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The silver jubilee 505 worlds has been
and gone. After the total domination of Steve Taylor and David Penfield
and the steady rise in the standard of the American fleet since La
Rochelle, the chances of the 1980 world champion being American were
very high, even with Taylor and Penfield absent.
As might be expected, all the Americans turned up well in advance of the
start of the championship to compete in the pre-worlds event for the
Parker Pot. It was said that Benjamin and Edmundson spent two weeks
prior to the Pot doing nothing but work on their boat. Such dedication
and concentrated effort is hard to beat.
This event gave all the competitors a chance to learn who the fast boats
were likely to be and the opportunity to practice on the championship
waters. The main lessons learnt were that quick judgement was needed
concerning currents and tidal flow and that you had to get the
windshifts right in order to survive the vital first windward leg with
any chance of victory at the end of the race.
Despite all his preparation Benjamin did have a gear failure which meant
he had to count a result in the 20s for a sixth place overall.
In race one of the worlds Jeff Miller and Tom Poore did what they had
been doing all year at home in California, rounding the wing mark ahead
of Peter Colclough and Harold Barnes, lengthening their lead at every
mark to win by two minutes. The wind blew from three to 10 knots from
the south-south west.
Ebbe Rosen and Olle Wenrup, winners of the Parker Pot, had a good race
with Mike Lawton and Terry Lawton for third and fourth places, crossing
the line in third. The Lawtons had moved through from sixth place at the
windward mark overtaking the top Danes Jorgen Schonherr and Anders
Kaempe.
Jon Andron and Howard Hamlin � the
builders of their Hamlin boat � showed the speed that was so nearly to
give them the championship with a fifth place finish having worked up
from fifteenth after an indifferent start, ahead of Phil Milanes and
John Davies. Benjamin and Edmundson started off on a humble note in
eighth place. Race two was sailed in similar wind strength, albeit from
a different direction and up to force three at times. An early start was
dictated by the tide so as to be able to work the port side of the
course. Benjamin overtook the early leaders, Staffan and Anders Eklund
from Sweden, on the second beat and went on to his first win. Peter
Colclough and Harold Barnes worked their way through the fleet to second
place with Hamlin fourth.
Race three caused a real upset between competitors, the race officer and
the international jury. There was a collision between the guard launch
and boats starting which should have voided the start. Unfortunately
this did not happen and there was a protest against the race which was
re-sailed on the spare day.
There was high drama at the start of the fourth race when Benjamin tried
to sail Colclough out of the race. This confrontation ended up with both
boats tacking off and sailing round the back of the fleet as it started.
Colclough was later able to lee bow Benjamin who then tacked out to sea
� yes the right way!
Benjamin rounded fourth and was leading by the wing mark and Hamlin was
third. By the next weather mark Benjamin lead from Hamlin with Colclough
third. At the end of the last triangle Colclough's spinnaker halyard
jammed at the drop which let Terry Kyrwood and Reg Crick from Australia
through into third place.
The fourth reach in this race was one of the few that remained tight to
the end. All the others had tended to broaden out at the bottom mark so
that boats could run into the mark nice and broad which played into the
hands of the American boats without shutes who could drop their
spinnakers with little trouble
So after three races Benjamin was scoring 8, 1, 1, Hamlin 5, 4, 2 and
Colclough 3, 2, 4.
Race five was lost due to fog and then strong winds. A frustrating day
was spent wandering around Hayling Bay in the fog only for the wind to
get up as boats returned across the bar with several capsizes and some
damage.
This was more than made up for with winds of 20 to 25 knots for the last
race proper. Andron and Hamlin powered their way round the course making
very effective use of their spinnaker � and shute � to finish first in
front of Benjamin who just pipped Eddie Owen and Andy Gray on the line.
Colclough suffered the indignity of rudder failure down the first reach
and then being sailed into as he limped home.
Race three was re-sailed on the spare day and fortunately for the
reputation of the host nation Owen and Gray had a convincing win ahead
of Swedes Krister Bergstrom and Kjell Lidman, and Miller and Poore. The
top three all finished out of the top places with Benjamin covering
Hamlin as well as keeping an eye on Colclough.
Terry Lawton
1980 world champions Tucker Edmundson and Steve Benjamin. Steve's the little one.
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From the Experts; The Benjamin 505 by Steve Benjamin
The US West Coast mounted the strongest challenge to the winners with Jon Andron (left) and Howard Hamlin sailing their own boat into second place.
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Fun is faster by Olle Wenrup
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From a wire by Terry Lawton
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Worlds Report by Krister Bergstrom
Pos. Sail No. Helm / Crew Points 1 US 6933 Steve Benjamin / Tucker Edmundson 17 2 US 7152 Jon Andron / Howard Hamlin 21 3 K 7189 Peter Colclough / Harold Barnes 26.7 4 S 6718 Krister Bergstr�m / Kjell Lidman 34.7 5 S 7145 Staffan Eklund / Anders Eklund 42.7 6 KA 7020 Terry Kyrwood / Reg Crick 44.4 7 K 7004 Eddie Owen / Andy Gray 48.7 8 US 6992 Jeff Miller / Tom Poore 55.7 9 K 7089 Peter White /Andrew Gilmore 55.7 10 S 7033 Ebbe Rosen / Olle Wenrup 56.7 11 K 7146 Phil Milanes/ John Davis 57.7 12 US 7059 Dennis Surtees/ Jay Kuncl 71 13 D 7143 J�rgen Sch�nherr / Anders Kaempe 74 14 KH 7186 Gees Nater / John Best 95 15 K 7170 Mike Hattemore / Mike Payne 95 16 F 6572 Francis Doerenbecher / Gay Bottlaender 98 17 US 7068 Bruce Ayres / Don Ayres 100 18 K 7010 David Pitman / David Henshall 101 19 US 7096 Tony Wattson / Phil Ramming 102 20 F 6822 Jerome Langlois / Philip Serane 110 21 G 7159 Stefan Waskonig / Ralph Zecher 113 22 US 6496 John Pulvermann / Duncan Skinner 124 23 G 7005 Matthias Dietz / Waldemar Strohmayer 126 24 K 6961 David White / John Labbett 127 25 K 7182 Paul Willmott / Neil Willmott 127 26 F 6620 Francois Fischer / Claude Phillips 130 27 D 6791 Lars L�nberg / Lars Kier 130 28 K 7187 Michael Lawton / Terry Lawton 133 29 US 7091 Derek Campbell / Wade Cressman 139 30 US 6988 Jim Wondolleck / Bruce Hellman 142 31 Z 7028 Urs Scherrer / Reto Walser 142 32 KA 7017 Bob Jones / Geoff Lange 144 33 F 6589 Marcel Buffet / J.P. De Beaumont 146 34 K 6980 Neil Thomas / Mike Moor 149 35 K 6518 David Revill / Nigel Brackenbury 153 36 G 6398 Alexander Hagen / Ludwig Groeneveld 158 37 G 7085 Stefan Kurys-Romer / Peter Forster 158 38 KH 7180 Eric Lockeyer / Tim Hammick 165 39 Z 6471 Lucien Keller / Georges Gay-Pierre 166 40 F 7122 Bernard Oudard / Denis Oudard 166 41 K 6688 David Treloar / Nigel Treloar 168 42 F 6963 Serge Gobir / Christian Lippi 168 43 S 7166 Anders Malmstr�m / Stefan Blidner 171 44 K 6851 Julian Hereward / John Langley 176 45 K 7077 Peter Bainbridge / Jamie Campbell 180 46 IR 7013 Wicliff McCready / R.Swainston 183 47 K 7106 David Clark / Richard Bartholomew 183 48 K 6853 Bill Goodacre / Nigel Squirrell 187 49 Z 7078 Christain Ruedi / Ruedi Mathis 188 50 D 6795 Michael Staal / Erik Lund 189 51 D 7140 Henrik Anderson / S�ren Anderson 195 52 S 6621 Karl Erik Nilsson / Jan Calvert 196 53 KC 6910 S.D. Lewis Stephen / Peters 200 54 K 7109 Richard Lord / B. Arell 200 55 F 7053 Sylvain Pellissier / Eric Levrat 205 56 S 6829 Thomas Widstrand / Gunnar Andersson 206 57 F 7121 Remi Tristan / Gwenola Tristan 206 58 F 6913 Yves Pottier / Jean Nadaud 210 59 SA 6641 Peter Cardwell / Roger Warner 211 60 F 6179 Marc Conan / Eric Conan 218 61 F 5969 Michel Dorae / Phillip Correard 230 62 F 7172 Gilbert Vinches / Phillippe Rinaldi 230 63 K 6844 Ricky Willows / John Maddocks 242 64 L 7049 Stefan Winquist / Per Str�mman 243 65 K 6544 Graham Thomas / Ken Norris 251 66 F 6732 J.P. Cordonnier / Alain Cordonnier 252 67 SA 5625 Rob Wilcox / Ditmar Hellman 253 68 G 6505 Ewald Bizoska / Hanno Barth 261 69 Z 6576 Marc Collomb / Yvan de Rham 268 70 KA 6706 Alan Bessell / John Tunney 268 71 B 6437 Marc Stockbroekx / Herman Stockbroekx 269 72 F 6811 E. de Cayeux / Y. Bezot 269 73 Z 6947 Urs Laudbli / Christoph Spalti 274 74 Z 7118 Pierre Baldenweg / Francois Baldenweg 275 75 K 6952 Derek Farrant / Bev Moss 275 76 G 6940 Ulrich Novak / F. Uhlemann 287 77 F 6600 Jacques Raguet / Samuel Thomas 290 78 SA 6712 Leo Ehlers / L. Ehlers Snr. 296 79 G 6930 Brigitte Preuss / Rolf Bertenrath 297 80 L 6133 Aarne Kuusi / Paul Evominen 300 81 SA 6686 Harry Elbers / Martin Knopp 312 82 K 7007 Ian Henry / Mike Henry 330 83 K 6789 Martin Forster (East Africa) / Nick Keeling 351 84 D 6525 J�rgen Vestbo / S�ren B�rre 353 85 L 6803 Jarmo Tiilikka / Lasse Karhiln 362
