The overall lead has changed again on day 3 of the 2004 Laser Radial World Championship in Brisbane, Australia. After a short delay waiting for the wind to fill in an 8-10kt easterly wind produced ideal conditions for the two races.

In the first fleet Germain Geffrey demonstrated that the French team have talent in depth by leading home Blair Mackay from Zealand to score his first win of the series whilst in the second fleet, his team mate, Jean Baptiste Bernaz, was challenging Daniel Jakobsson BRA for first place. Jakobsson led at the first mark and extended his lead downwind. He takes up the story: “I quickly lost it on the second windward when Jean Baptiste Bernaz found a puff on the left. I made a mistake. I should have covered him but instead I went straight to the right which was good for me on the first leg. He was right on my transom at the windward mark but then I pulled away.”

Bernaz made a good start in the middle in his second race but lost out to others on both the left and right side of the course to round the first mark ninth. He said: “on the downwind I stayed on the right when all the others went left because of the current and I got to second. At the end of the next windward leg I was right behind the British Alex Stothert when he dropped his mainsheet and I passed him. I did not wait for him and finished first!”

Outteridge probably 20th at the first mark. It was a lot more difficult to fight back but I finished 10th. In the second race I was 3th round the first mark but got overtaken by Campbell Davidson GBR.

Simon Morgan from Tasmania , Australia took the other race starting at the port end and working the shifts up the middle to lead at the first mark and the rest of the race. Javier Padron ESP overtook two boats on the last downwind to finish second.

Jakobsson had a story to tell in the second race: “I started at the port end and went to tack to cross the fleet by a mile and thought ‘This is it. I’m gone!’ As I tacked I caught a really bad wave and stopped and hit another boat with the jury boat right behind me. After my 720 turn I was way behind and I rounded the first mark about 20th. Fortunately downwind is saving me a lot and I got back to 6th.”

With the discard now in place Bernaz is the new overall leader from Charlotte Dobson GBR who had another solid day scoring a 4th and 5th. Japan’s Shinnosuke Yasuda was Asia’s strongest sailor of the day matching Dobson’s scores. Previous leader, Nathan Outteridge from Australia drops to third overall after a 10th and 4th. Relaxed with his results he said: “Today was all right, not as good as the previous two days but it is going pretty good. I didn’t get the shifts right up the first beat in the first race and I was back in the pack which is a lot more difficult to recover from.”

The fleet have two more races in the Qualifier series before splitting into gold and silver fleets for the final two days.

Results (with 1 discard)

1 FRA BERNAZ Jean Baptiste M 10

2 GBR DOBSON Charlotte, F 14

3 AUS OUTTERIDGE Nathan, M 15

4 BRA JAKOBSSON Daniel, M 20

5 FRA FREI Mathieu, M 22

6 GBR STOTHERT Alex John, M 26

7 GBR DAVIDSON Campbell, M 26

8 FRA GEFFRAY Germain, M 27

9 CRO MIHELIC Daniel, M 27

10 ARG CARRANZA SAROLI Cecilia, F 28

11 AUS MORGAN Simon, M 29

12 ESP PADRON Javier, M 32

13 IRL BYRNE Conor, M 33

14 JPN YASUDA Shinnosuke, M 40

15 NZL MCLAY Blair, M 41