SAILING/Dragon World Championships:In spite of the fact there were only 35 finishers from a fleet of 68 starters in yesterday's third race of the Aberdeen Dragon World Championships, there were plenty of grumbles but no formal protests against the race committee last night.
As a result the European champion Markus Wieser moves to the top of the leaderboard in Dún Laoghaire after a consistent performance led to a first and fourth place scored in light and shifting conditions.
Northwesterly winds of 15 knots yesterday morning brought ideal sailing conditions and held throughout the race.
A mark-rounding chart produced by the race organisers shows a straight line for Wieser, who led from start to finish.
The Danish champion Frank Berg was second. Third was Ireland's Mick Cotter.
The breeze evaporated at lunchtime and the third race was delayed. There were many who were surprised it started at all.
A raftup of 75 per cent of the fleet occurred at the second leeward mark when, after several large shifts, the wind died away.
It was a spectacle that produced plenty of incidents and allowed the top six boats, including Wieser, to produce a large lead in a breeze that had swung in to the north-east.
As a result nearly half the fleet could not finish within the time limit and were scored DNF ("did not finish").
In spite of some strong criticism, no protest was lodged to have the race thrown out.
Race officer Alan Crosbie was only too aware of the difficulties encountered and admitted that at times it was "50-50" as to whether it should have continued.
Today's fourth race will mark the halfway point of the regatta and already the top of the scoresheet is looking like a rerun of the Europeans, with silver medallist Berg trailing Wieser by 11 points.
The Royal St George's Andrew Craig may have replaced Simon Brien as top Irish performer in 11th but he is aware that the 24th scored yesterday morning could have been a lot higher except for some early handling mistakes in race two.
Last night the Irish champion Neil Hegarty took a protest over a decision to disqualify him from race two after he had finished second ahead of Berg.
Hegarty was judged to have been over the line at the start, a situation that could have been corrected, he claimed, if a sound signal had been made.
