The Irish RS21 keelboat crew returned from the inaugural World Championships in Croatia last week, and the new design will now feature on Irish waters when it competes at this weekend's Dun Laoghaire's DBSC Turkey Shoot Series.
The sole Irish boat in Biograd Na Moru, sailed by Kenny Rumball, Jonathan Sargent, Andrew Smith, and Sean Donnelly, finished 29th overall in the 41-boat fleet. Scroll down for results.
Rumball will now try his luck in the second race of the country's largest winter series for cruiser racers, which is raced under a modified ECHO handicap.
Like many other designs in the 78-boat entry, the new RS21 will try to break the stranglehold of J designs that took the top five places in last Sunday's first race in a fleet of 63 boats on the water.
First-ever RS21 World Championship
The first-ever RS21 World Championship is officially completed. The week has been filled with sunshine, a great variety of light and strong wind conditions, close racing and lively debate on tactics ashore. As Afloat reported earlier, on some days, the competitors were challenged with tricky conditions, which meant that success came down to focus and fine-tuning to stay at the front of the fleet.
Tight racing under spinnaker at the RS21 inaugural World Championships in Croatia
The four days of racing gave the RS21 Class everything they could have hoped for in terms of showing off the key attributes of the RS21. Its one-design nature showcased an ability to perform in light and tricky conditions and handle a big breeze and waves whilst retaining the enjoyment and thrill factor. Culminating with three races on the final day added to the excitement with the added pressure that the discard would kick in and anything could happen to the results, every point counted. With the three final races close to the club, the breeze was coming off the land, making the shifts very hard to read, and a consistent performance was very hard to maintain. Most teams recorded big scores on the final day, but both Gianluca Grisoli and Hugh Watson and their crews did enough to earn their respective titles as Open and Corinthian World Champions.
The RS21 Open World Champions Gianluca Grisoli, Andrea Casale, Fabio Gridelli and Giorgio Tortarolo celebrate in Croatia Photo: Phil Jackson
The inaugural RS21 Open World Champions are ITA 225 with Gianluca Grisoli, Andrea Casale, Fabio Gridelli and Giorgio Tortarolo in first place, ITA244 with Giovanni Meloni, Niccolo Bianchi, Camilla Cordero and Pietro Negri in second place and third place ITA243 with Martin Reintjes, Francesco Rubagotti, Giulio Desiderato and Daniele Cassinari.
The inaugural RS21 Corinthian World Champions are GBR211 with Hugh Watson, Helen Watson, Emma McEwen and Susanna Peatsin, first place, POL213 with Wojtek Myśliwiec, Rafał Błażejczyk, Marcin Panaś, Adrian Kaczyński in second place, and third place team GER289 with Claudia Rossi, Matteo Morellina, Andrea Spagnolli and Francesco Rampazzo.
Check out the full results below
