5O5
World Championships 1970
Larry Marks, aided by Victor Deschamps in Muchacha V, retained the W.D. and H.O. Wills 505 World Championship title at Plymouth on August 23-28. They had clinched the championship by the Thursday, which was just as well because they had a minor spinnaker blow-out the following day, on which they finished 8th, their poorest performance of the week.
A builder Marks wins championships he doesn't drop many bricks. He travels
faster than anybody else because he sometimes has to, due to safety starts
when keeping out of trouble also means keeping out of the first ten at the
weather mark.
He had positions of 15, 16 and 34th at the buoy, for instance, which means s
sombre start in half the weeks races yet, apart from the last race. was never
out of the top six from 80 entrants from19 countries. His places were
6-4-1-3-3-8.
It was not a walk-over. Swede Christer Bath(*) could have been a close challenger but for being one of a handful disqualified for jumping the start in the first race He followed this with a 3lst and 22nd, but when winds came in the second half of the week he finished up with 1-4-2.
(*) Finished 3rd. One would suspect a biased decision since the soul female judge on the committee boat happened to be close related to a top notch British boat� ~ webmaster remark)
Bath wasn't the only helmsman to go well in a blow. Mike Arnold won the last race and Derek Farrant the penultimate when the rigging was humming. But they were not consistent enough, like Gordon Wilson and his brother Philip, second overall in Freres Bear, who had a disaster in the first, light-airs, race when finishing 44th then proceeded to finish 7-5-7-6-12 with rare steadfastness.
The championship weather gave everybody a chance, though in the airyfairy conditions in the early part of the week wrong choice of ends at the start meant premature disaster. Courses were laid outside the breakwater, where the 505s had a dummy-run in their Nationals last year, and they were laid well by Robin Farrant. Two postponed starts to allow the winds to settle down were particularly prophetic.
But there was little anybody could do about the first race's wind motivation, a shifty southerly which enforced a 45 minute delay. Then with the modest tide under them the fleet edged over for three general recalls. On the fourth attempt they got away but port end bunching caught some out and over including Christer Bath. Peter Bainbridge won this one in Piranha with Marc Bouet of France then W. McCready of Ireland next over.
Another Irishman took his turn to shine in the second points race, Harold
Cudmore in Overdrawn leading home the Gadel twins Pierre and Georges from
France. It was another light airs race leaving the heavy weather boys champing
at the bit, Marks moving up eleven places for a 4th astern of the Buttigieg
brothers in Gunrunner.
In the first fresh-breeze race, Marks was the winner handsomely heading borne
the Dane Jan Eppers by 2 mins 10 secs. Cudmore kept in the overall running
with a 3rd. This third points race was postponed an hour, just right for a
south-easter to develop and uplift the Wilson brothers and Hugh Bourn in Lord
Sam 5th and 6th places, astern of Frenchman Granger-Wacquez in Sherkahn.
Some belated compensation for Christer Bath came in the forth race he won in
the weather the Swedes had been clamouring for plenty of bluster. Another
Swede, Goran Kallfelt in Barabas finished second but Mike Arnold was thrashing
it out with them when he capsized under
spinnaker
on the first frantic run. Tenth at the first buoy, Marks finished third and
his consistency was now revealing his overall title prospects.
With two races to go he now required to finish reasonably high in one of them
to commandeer the title, which he secured with a third in the fifth points
race when he quite happily watched Derek Farrant in Miss 7, nowhere near a
spent force in international gatherings, beat Dane Steen Christensen for the
gun before he himself crossed the line.
Marks watchfully covered Bath who finished fourth and Gordon Wilson's 6th
place in Freres Bear now ensured he would figure in the fight for second place
overall. In the last race their main danger was Cudmore who was going flat out
and lying seventh when he turned over at the end of the first reach and limped
home in the quarter of the fleet, which took s hammering from a strong
easterly blow. The Wilson's saw his plight and were quite content to jog round,
hardly bothering to use their spinnaker except park it away neatly, as they
almost meambled home 12th, home and runners-up.
The Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club and the sponsors W.D. & H.O.
Wills combined, firmly yet unobtrusively, to produce wholesomely successful
championship.
Results:
1) "Muchacha" V (L. Marks, G Britain) 6-4-1-3-3-8 = 31,1 2) "Freres Bear" (G. Wilson, G.B.) 44-7-5-7-6-12 = 65,7 3) "Miss 7" (D. Farrant, G.B.) ?-?-?-?-1-3 = 70,7 4) "Kalabalik" (C. Bath, Sweden.) D-31-22-1-4-2 = 76 5) "Piranha" (P. Bainbridge, G.B.) ?-6-?-?-?-? = 81,4 6) "SOS" (N. Bouet, France) ?-?-?-?-?-? = 85 |