Radial Worlds 2010

The Radial Worlds were held in Largs Scotland this year. It is a small town 40 minutes drive from Glasgow.

Isabella Bertold was representing Royal Van in the championships, and had worked extremely hard on the water and in the gym to prepare herself for the seasons main event.

She flew to Scotland three days before me and got her boat charter and trained with the rest of the Canadian team in strong breeze.

I arrived after the Waves Regatta and we went forward with our plan to have a best ever result at a worlds.

We had chartered a coach boat from Ben Remoker's "Port Tack Charter" company. We fully stocked it with spare parts and daily food and water supplies.

The weather appeared to be consistently breezy and rainy and it seemed that we were in for a tough pysical event. Of course wind before an event can be deceptive , as we went out in fairly light wind the first day.

Isabella had some decent starts, (for North American events) but still struggled to get to the weather mark in good shape. She was hovering around the middle of the fleet after the first day.

The second day was a hair lighter again and after a long debrief the night before Isabella cracked a sweet start and led going up the first beat.
She fought hard all the way thru the race and finished 4th. A real milestone in her career. She had good confidence started the 2nd race of the day and was 15th to the top mark but unfortunatly fell thru the race working the wrong side and ended in the 30's.

The final day of qualifiers started late and only one race was sailed , it was light and tough throughout and Isabella ended in the teens.

She had shown that she was ready for racing in the front of the fleet. Unfortunatly the Gold fleet series that she had qualified only materialized into one race that was fluky with a major wind shift during the race. She got a 30 and moved into 47 (5 points from a senior Canadian team card).

There was alot of waiting around and no racing for 2 days, very frustrating to say the least. Isabella stayed upbeat and was a real pro all the way through.

This was the toughest event she has competed in and I think that with her excellent work ethic and determination she will break into the top ranks of her discipline.

The next worlds is in Perth Australia in December 2011.

Thanks Royal Van for the support

Al