Babbage extends Moth Worlds lead

Exceptional sailing by Australian Scott Babbage, with six wins from seven races at the Moth Worlds on Lake Garda in Italy, has moved him into a comfortable nine point lead over the 125-boat fleet overnight, with six Australians now featured in the top 10.
 
Competitors from around the globe faced a wide range of conditions on Day 3, when four further races were completed. A 25-knot 'Peler' and one metre waves early in the morning was replaced by a dying 'Ora' late in the afternoon, forcing the race committee to shorten the last race.

Babbage dominated again to extend his lead, his 11th place in a dying breeze amongst an otherwise floorless scorecard, used as his drop. Sharing the glory is certainly Anthony Kouton, the rookie from the British Virgin Islands, who now claims second place overall.

Meanwhile, Anthony Kotoun might call himself a "rookie with many hurdles to overcome," but he proved to be a master of the light to moderate Ora, the afternoon breeze on Lake Garda. Feeling comfortable in these conditions, Kotoun pushed Joshua McKnight down to third overall.

The top-five is now completed by 2009 Moth world champion, Bora Gulari and Joe Turner (AUS) who have started to find their form.

Locals say that when the sun rises over the mountains surrounding Lake Garda, the 'Pelèr' kicks in with vengeance. So, with an 8:30am start scheduled, the fleet was prepared to face tough but spectacular conditions off Campione del Garda.

There were dozens of capsizes, crashes and swims, but when the going gets tough, the tough get going. In the Yellow fleet, Babbage led from start to finish. In the Blue fleet, a fight between Joshua McKnight, Joe Turner and Rob Gough resulted in the latter scoring his first victory so far.

When the race committee gave the signal for the second race, the Pelèr was already fading and shifting. Although still fresh, the lighter breeze and the flatter seas didn't provide the same amount of excitement. Once again, Scott Babbage dominated the Yellow fleet with Chris Rashley (GBR) coming second behind him.

Although the young British sailor hasn't scored any victories, his consistent performance has allowed him to make inroads in the rankings and climb into the top five.

After a break ashore in order to get the "Pelèr" out of the way and wait for the "Ora" to build up, the fleet took to the water for two more races.

For the Yellow fleet, the third race of the day was marked by the match race between Scott Babbage and Andrew McDougall. McDougall built an immense lead over the rest of the fleet at the first weather mark but meter by meter, Babbage closed in on him and won the race on the finish line.

In the fourth and last race of the day, the shifting and dying breeze made it necessary to shorten it at the bottom mark. Joe Turner dominated the Blue fleet from the outset, while Babbage had his worst result of the week so far in the Yellow fleet. Although he was third at the top mark the Aussie slipped to 11th by the finish line.

On racing today, Babbage said: "We had some very good racing in the morning. The first race of the afternoon was a very close one with Andrew McDougall and I'm not sure whether I beat him or beat me. It was too close to tell.

"In the last race, the breeze died at the top. A few boats got away and then the race committee decided to finish the race at the bottom, so there wasn't any opportunity. I'm satisfied with my overall performance. I find the morning races much more fun than the afternoon ones, which are pretty painful - I hope we do more mornings."

On whether he is happy Nathan Outteridge (defending world champion and fellow Australian) is in San Francisco skippering Team Korea in the America's Cup World Series, Babbage said, "No, it would've been good to have him here; he's always a good competitor and it's good when you take races off him.

"I beat him in the Australian Championship, the first regatta I beat him at in 10 years. That was good, but I think that if he did the Worlds he would definitely be hard to beat."

Although Thursday was initially scheduled to be a lay day, the race committee will try to hold two more qualification races starting at 2pm local time, to make up for the lost second day of the Championship. Once again, the weather forecast is quite similar to what we have seen so far, and as a result, the Moths will have to fly in a light to moderate Ora breeze.

Top 10 results after 7 races and 1 discard:
1. Scott Babbage (AUS), 1,1,1,1,1,1,(11)=6
2. Anthony Kotoun (ISV), 3,3,2,(11),2,2,3=15
3. Joshua McKnight (AUS), 6,1,1,2,4,3,(12)=17
4. Bora Gulari (USA), 2,2,7,(14),4,4,3=22
5. Joe Turner (AUS), (9),9,2,3,3,5,1=23
6. Chris Rashley (GBR), 4,(7),4,4,2,5,7=26
7. Julian Salter (AUS), 7,4,3,7,(12),1,8=30
8. Andrew McDougall (AUS), 2,8,5,7,(21),2,6=30
9. Rob Gough (AUS), 5,3,(17),1,11,7,5=32
10. Jason Paul Belben (GBR), (60 DNF),10,6,3,3,10,2=34

By Moth Worlds Media, as sourced from www.yachte.com.au

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