2000 505 Worlds, Durban, SA

Race 1 - 10-20 knots, ENE, sunny skies, low 80's.

The US team of Howard Hamlin and Peter Alarie won the inaugural race of the 2000 505 World Championship, but they had an unexpected fight at the finish line with four-time world champion, Christer Bergstrom. Howie and Peter watched as a 200 plus yard lead evaporated in front of their eyes on the last 4 legs of the nine leg course.

"Christer was going real fast on the beats, and probably made up 100 yards on each of the last two upwind legs. He passed us on the last few hundred yards to the finish. After about a 15-tack duel, we each headed for opposite sides of the finish line, and fortunately for us, we chose the favored end and beat him by a boat length."

"I really though we had made a huge mistake and lost the race at the end", said Alarie, "but, Christer gave us the race back when he allowed himself to get pinned underneath us on port tack. All we had to do then was prevent him from tacking, sail to a fat layline, and finish at the pin end."

A boat length differential is about as tight as it gets on a 505 worlds course, and it shows just how competitive this fleet is. Imagine, after 2 hours of hard sailing over 15 miles of ocean, to be shooting the line to take the gun must be as exciting as it gets.

Ian Barker, the silver medalist in the 49er class in Sydney, put his 505 sailing shoes back on, and placed third for the day, passing Andy Beekman and Ben Benjamin from the US close to the finish. Andy and Benny, known in the US as the "Young Bucks", were second at the 505 worlds in France last year. Andy said, "Barker just went into warp speed there at the end. There was nothing we could do to stop him."

For my friends following the antics of Team SPOT, today certainly had it high and low points. We were late getting through the gate, and were forced to tack off and take about 40 transoms. It's not as brutal as it sounds because you actually get a nice lift off of everyone's sails. We were back in the race before long, but it was tough to make the right side pay. After 2 exciting reach legs, we had passed about 10 boats to move into the top 15. Our upwind speed was pretty suspect, and we lost a few more on the ensuing beat, but got it all back and then some on the run, where we sailed high, surfed some massive waves, and some how pulled into the top 12. We then proceeded to unravel in the next 4 legs, losing about 200 yards when our spin sheet got sucked under the bow. We ended up 22nd. This is a tough crowd here, and it seems any time you can pop into the top 10, you're sailing amongst some elite company. Tomorrow is another day, and we have a lot of positive things to take away from today's sailing.

I'll be back tomorrow with another report. It's really howling out now, and we expect another classic 30 knot Durban day.

Jesse