Competitors from 18 countries and five continents made Moreton Bay look like a united nations convention as the fleet left the marina for the first day of racing at the 2004 Laser Radial Youth World Championship in Brisbane yesterday.

The 108-strong fleet of under 19-year-olds includes 40 under the age of 17 and 24 girls split into two groups each day for a qualifying and final series.

Light winds of 6-8 knots and a slightly oscillating sea breeze provided plenty of opportunity for place changes, sharing of honours between continents and an opportunity for the girls to show the boys the way round. Cecilia Carranza ARG and Charlotte Dobson GBR both had their time at the front of their respective fleets but in the tight racing dropped a few places as new leaders appeared at almost every mark. Dobson finished second behind Javier Padron of Spain in the second race of her fleet and bettered him by 11 places in their first race which was won by Daniel Jakobsson from Brazil. Dobson’s 14th, Padron’s 25th in the first race and Jakobsson’s 12th in the second race demonstrated how difficult it was to be consistent.

Jakobsson said: “I got the shifts right in the first race playing first the right hand and then the left hand side of the two windward legs. In the second race I had a poor start and could not get to the side right hand side of the course.” Padron laughed when asked about his first race but was happy with his second “I had a good start and got to the first mark in third. On the downwind I got closer to the leading two boats and passed them on the second downwind.” Singapore’s Justin Tan had a similar story “I got the current wrong in the first race but had good strategy in the second to finish third.” Nathan Outeridge AUS was the most consistent in the yellow fleet scoring a 3th and 4th closely followed by Carranza’s 4th and 5th.

In the blue fleet, sailing the inner loop of the trapezoid course, Mathieu Frei from France scored the best results of the day winning the first race after overtaking Carlos Teixidor from Puerto Rico after the downwind gate and finishing a half a boat length behind Conor Byrne IRL in an exciting finish in the second race.

Overall Results

1 FRA 128681 FREI Mathieu 3.0

2 AUS 171117 OUTTERIDGE Nathan 7.0

3 CHI 164141 GREZ AHRENS Cristobal 8.0

4 PUR 175951 TEIXIDOR Carlos, U17 9.0

5 ARG 179356 CARRANZA SAROLI Cecilia 9.0

6 FRA 178129 GEFFRAY Germain 10.0

7 FRA 175399 BERNAZ Jean Baptiste 11.0

8 IRL 177498 BYRNE Conor 12.0

9 BRA 157790 JAKOBSSON Daniel 13.0

10 GBR 176707 DAVIDSON Campbell 14.0

11 NZL 178665 MACKY Jane 15.0

12 GBR 176706 DOBSON Charlotte 16.0

13 CRO 177575 MIHELIC Daniel 16.0

14 GRE 167693 TZORTZIS Antonios 17.0

15 GBR 174416 STOTHERT Alex John 17.0