Full reports were sent day-by-day to the 505 World
Forum by Jean-Baptiste Dupont. His reports on the Pre-Worlds can be found
here.
It was a superb event. Americans were first and
second. Howard Hamlin has been trying for twenty years to win the worlds, and has been
second at least twice (including last year). Mike Martin his crew is or was a top Laser
sailor. They had worked very hard with Andy Beckman and Ben Benjamin, also from Los
Angeles, who came second, sailing regularly and tuning together throughout the year. In
the generally light to moderate conditions they were unstoppable and fully deserved their
success. The top Brits, Ian Pinnell and Mark Upton-Brown, were the only other boats to win
races - in both cases when there was slightly more wind. But both were beaten overall by
Jorgen Schonherr from Denmark (former World and European Champion, returning to the class
after a couple of years' absence), Wolfgang Hunger from Germany (former 470 World
Champion, and trying hard for top 505 spot for a couple of years), and Krister Bergstrom
from Sweden (multiple former World Champion).
Other random impressions: - At times the
organisation was a bit stretched, e.g. at registration. But check measurement on 160 boats
was completed satisfactorily by a very dedicated team headed by Alain Bujaud and Don
O'Donnell. And on the water the management was faultless. All the gate starts went without
a hitch. The only general recalls were in the pre-worlds when line starts were tried in
lighter winds on day two.
- All except about eight boats turned out for the start of the final race at 0800 on
Saturday. Given the fact that it was French summer time, and that Quiberon is 3 degrees
West of Greenwich (yes, West), it was very early by sundial time. We woke with a slim
waning moon clearly visible, and went afloat at 0700 at sunrise - equivalent to about 0445
sundial time. I heard no complaints. It was a beautiful morning, with a nice breeze.
- As always there were lots of old friends from all over the world competing. But it was
also nice that some past 505ers also visited for shorter or longer times. It was good to
see Les and Janet Everitt making contact with so many old friends. It was impressive that
Cam Lewis turned up; he put in an appearance having just failed in his bid to beat the
Trans Atlantic sailing record. And I was particularly touched to meet Jean-Marie
Danniellou again. Jean-Marie was a very handsome, dashing and successful sailer in the
late 1960s and the 1970s (including a European Championship win and a second in the
Worlds), but he had a horrendous car accident in about 1977, leaving him seriously
crippled and maimed. He came to the dinner in his wheelchair, and happily chatted and
yarned about the old days, his memory as good as ever, although in the noisy dining hall
and with his speech difficulty I could not follow everything he said.
All in all, a memorable event.