Britain’s John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Stephen Thomas have won the Sonar class, and German skipper Heiko Kroeger the 2.4 Metre class at the 2006 Alcoa IFDS World Disabled Sailing Championships, hosted by the Royal Perth Yacht Club.

The two countries also took second places, with Jens Kroker and his crew second in the Sonars, while British skipper Helena Lucas was second in the 2.4 Metres.

Norway was third in both classes, Bjornar Erikstad slipping from first place overnight in the 2.4 Metres, while Jostein Stordahl overtook the Australian Sonar crew on the last day.

John Robertson became the first skipper in the history of the Sonar class, in disabled sailing, to defend the world championship, putting in a very steady performance on the final day, with two firsts and a second place. The English skipper said his coach had told him in the morning, “just relax and enjoy it, and we did.”

Elaborating on his success on the final day he said, “the others made it very difficult for themselves, the Germans nailed themselves to the pin on the starting line twice.”

For Heiko Kroeger, this was a return to the top spot, having won the championship six times before, but only finishing second last year, “so it’s nice to be the champion again,” he commented.

Talking about the sailing on the Swan River he said, “these conditions were very, very tricky, this is one of the most challenging places I’ve sailed, it was hard to get a pattern with the shifts, also the competition in the best we’ve ever had.”

While John Robertson and his crew made it look easy on the Sonar course today, in the 2.4 Metres it went down to the wire, with Helena Lucas just one point behind Heiko Kroeger going into the last race of the day.

For Lucas to win, she had to finish in the top five, and be ahead of Kroeger, but the German made a great start, and sailed a stead race to take the gun, and the series.

Overall Results (10 races, 8 to count)

Sonars

1. John Robertson/Stodel/Thomas GBR 15pts

2. Jens Kroker/Schoenberg/Schuetz GER 27pts

3. Jostein Stordahl/Hansen/Kristiansen NOr 27pts

2.4 Metres

1. Heiko Kroeger GER 17pts

2. Helena Lucas GBR 20.5pts

3. Bjornar Erikstad NOR 30pts