On the fourth and final day of the Velocitek-Sponsored Musto Skiff World Championships there was a full strength peler wind blowing and with a 12 noon start planned the full race programme looked under threat as the wind would need to switch to the north Ora breeze and settle before racing. In classic Garda fashion the peler ‘switched off’ at noon and a postponement enforced.

As it was the last day of the championship the time of the last signal was scheduled for 3pm and as the Ora breeze built it soon became apparent that the race team were only going to be able to run a single race giving Ian Trotter no chance of turning over Richard Stenhouses 3 point overnight lead.

That said the Ora breeze continued to build to close to 20knots and with the chop left over from the morning peler the fleet launched into what was likely to be the most epic conditions of the week.

Once again the fleet started cleanly under the I flag and the boats that started at the committee boat and headed for the strongest winds in the middle of the lake were favoured with Ali Luxford leading the charge downwind.

Today’s conditions looked set to yield the best speeds of the week for the Velocitek Vmax competition.

After the first lap Luxford had conceded the lead to Neil Upton-Brown but up the next beat those who had selected the left gate mark gained the advantage and at the final windward mark four boats rounded overlapped and headed off downwind for the final charge.

At the finish Ian Turnbull had taken the advantage to finish first from Stenhouse who was chased home hard by Upton-Brown and Rick Perkins.

This final race win gave Turnbull second overall from Trotter.

Overall Results

1st Richard Stenhouse, GBR, 12 points
2nd Ian Turnbull, GBR, 18 points
3rd Ian Trotter, GBR, 20 points
4th Ian Renilson, GBR, 41 points
5th Rick Perkins, GBR, 49