High Liner IFDS Worlds at Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron - Day 1

Sunny skies and shifty wind conditions were part of the story of the first day of racing at the High Liner IFDS Worlds 2014 at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron in Halifax, Nova Scotia. All three classes raced twice on Tuesday with some drama focused on the 2.4m course where 48 competitors have to fight for the favoured spot to cross over the start line. A number of competitors were given a black flag on the third recall and several high performers are were caught up and now sit far back in the fleet.

In the lead in the 2.4m class after two races is Heiko Kroeger of Germany. followed by Kevin Cantin of France and Helena Lucas of Great Britain. Canadian Bruce Miller is in fourth position.

On the SKUD-18 course, the Italian team of Marco Guadalandris and Marta Zanetti are tied for first place with Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch of Australia, the gold medal winners from the 2012 London Paralympics. The British team of Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell are next and Canadians John McRoberts and Jackie Gay are just one point behind.

In the Sonar competition, GBR-1 is in first place. Canadian Paul Tingley whose hometown is Halifax and his two teammates are in second place after the two races today and the US team of Rick Doerr, Hugh Freund and Tim Angle are in the third place spot.

The international jury lead by Pat Healey of the United States spent several hours hearing seven protests that came out of today's racing.

The weather outlook for the week is for continued fair conditions with light winds forecast for the next couple of days. Principal Race Officer Rob Williams said he would prefer to see the normal southwest breezes that are common in Nova Scotia as the northerlies over the past few days have made it harder to set up race courses and less predictable sailing conditions for the competitors.

Two races are planned for each class until Saturday. A final championship race is in the plan for Sunday.

www.ifdsworlds2014.ca

ISAF awards medal to former IFDS president

ISAF vice president Gary Jobson has presented former IFDS president Linda Merkle of Atlanta, Georgia with a silver medal for service to disabled sailing. Merkle spent more than fifteen years in various roles with the International Association for Disabled Sailing. She was recruited to help the sport as director of the Paralympic regatta in Atlanta prior to the 1996 Games and went on to serve as technical chair of IFDS and later president.

The presentation was part of the opening ceremonies for the High Liner Foods IFDS Worlds 2014 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Jobson spoke directly to the competitors, remembering adversity he faced with his own health. He was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2003 and went through several years of intense treatment to return to good health. He said that sailing memories provided him inspiration to get better. And he told the athletes they are all providing the same type of help: "In your own way, you are all inspiring to someone else," he said.