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In the News: DRW CEO Don Wilson competes in M32 World Championship

07.14.2017

With 15 high-speed catamarans firing out of a reaching start, day one of the inaugural M32 World Championship was a big, fun learning curve for the teams.

Getting ahead of the pack was a key skill on such abusy start line, and one sailor who seems to have learned the knack quickly isOlympic Finn sailing veteran, Pieter-Jan Postma who steered Sailing Team NL toscores of 2,2,1,3. The Dutchman was the only skipper to keep all his scoresinside the top three, although he’s tied on points with young Kiwi Chris Steeleand CFA Sport Racing who scored 1,2,4,1.

Postma hasn’t long been racing the M32 catamaranbut has got to grips with the high-performance demands of the boat very fast.“Today was a very awesome day, an amazing situation in Marstrand with 15 boatson the start line. It was very tight, very exciting and we had a good day. Thereaching start is great. I see starting as an art, you hit the pace at the rightmoment, with the team all synced and the hull flying, it’s a fantasticexperience.”

Fellow New Zealander Hayden Goodrick is sailingwith Chris Steele and is one of the most experienced M32 sailors around. Todaythough, was new territory for everyone. “I don’t think we’ve ever had 15 M32son a reaching start line and in that much breeze before. It makes for somepretty interesting chaos. I definitely heard a few bangs and crashes at times,fortunately enough we weren’t amongst that. We got some clean starts and thatled to some good results for us.”

The 2008 Olympic Champion in the 49er skiff, JonasWarrer, is also doing well in third overall, and the Danish skipper was theother race winner today. However, the Corinthian owner-drivers are also faringwell against the Olympic medallists and America’s Cup sailors in the fleet.Leading the Corinthian battle is Don Wilson and Convexity in fourth overall,while Richard Davies and Section 16 are in sixth overall.

Read more at Scuttlebutt Sailing News.

Photo courtesy of Scuttlebutt Sailing News.