Day One to USA at AUS IOM Australian Championship

_{Pictured: George Pedrick & Gene Harris (USA)}

A stella performance by our overseas guest sees George Pedrick, from the USA, overnight leader of the championship after day one after scoring 2, 3, 6, 1 in the four races completed. Pedrick made the most of the tricky conditions which started with a NNW of around 10 knots shift into the NNE and increase slightly in the early afternoon but it was the gusts which regularly saw bow's down on the downwind leg with places frequently changing. 

While the fleet kicked off with A rigs by race two the B rigs started to appear but the questions continued as to what was the right rig to choose with one gust possibly seeing someone go from hero to zero and in the end most opted for B rigs for most of the day although during the lulls these were quite challenging.

Our defending champion, Paul Jones, started well with a win in his seeding race followed by a win in race two before falling victim to the gusty conditions in race 3 after opting to return to the A rig but is in striking distance to Pedrick and will no doubt step it up a gear over the coming days, although he'll now need to sail consistently well at the front of the fleet with already scoring two races which he will be hoping to discard as we reach the pointy end of the championship and certainly wont want to add another high score to the card. Jones finished the day with 1, 1, 13, 7 and is just three points behind Pedrick.

Victorian, Scott Fleming, with his new launched Plan B is currently third placed on nine points with Jones, scoring 1, 9, 3, 5 for the day and if he can maintain this consistency will be looking for a podium finish.

Sean Wallis (WA) and Mike Hickman (TAS) round out the top five with Wallis two points behind Jones and Fleming with Hickman a further point back. 

The forecast for tomorrow will no doubt see B rigs out again with the breeze from the SSE around 12-17 knots before increasing to around 15-20 knots or more later in the day.