A
low pressure made its appearance on the bay of Cannes today at the 38th Régates Royales, bringing in heavy, grey clouds and rain. Luckily
a breeze from the North-East enabled the Classics to race on a shortened
triangular coastal course, while the Dragons had a quite complicated day
and the 5.5 Metre had the first two races of their series. Stormy
weather in Cannes today. Announced by loud thunder and punctually followed
by dark grey clouds and heavy rain, the expected low pressure arrived over
the bay in the early afternoon. It was an electric-charged atmosphere on
the second day of the 38th Régates Royales de Cannes
and quite a complicated situation for tacticians who had to try to adapt
to shifts, sudden gusts and rainstorms and for the sailors trying to choose
the best possible sail configurations...
Thunder
and lighting
It
looked like the gods of thunder, lighting and rain were all meeting in
the Bay of Cannes today. Thor, Tanaris, Tlaloc and Zeus convened to make
the sailors' life hard. Still, the race committees managed to launch at
least one race for each division, with the classics racing on a shortened
course. The 150 crews had to put all their energy and skills to manoeuvre,
hoist and take down the sails, tacking and jibing in the Bay of La Napoule
and in the gulf of Juan.
The
5.5 Metre class had two races that confirmed the Swiss sailors' supremacy:
Alain Marchand and his crew on Société Nautique de Genève
won the first race and were second in the following one while the
Dutch Arend Jan Pasman, Ron Azier, Kim Chabani on Feng Shui
scored a third and a victory, but, behind them on the top of the leaderboard
three German teams are tied at points (9 points): Atari, Prettynama
and Silver Fox.
The
Dragons spit fire
It
was not an easy day for the Dragons today, the weather conditions were
hard on the 50 one-design boats. After several general recalls the race
committee hoisted the black flag: five boats were over the line, disqualified
and forced to go back into port. The ensuing race was certainly tricky
and was dominated by the Swedish crew of Johan and Cathanina Larson, Chris
Winter on Dancing Queen that led the fleet from start to finish,
while some favourites like German-flagged Smaug fell back and
finished only in 17th but still managed to keep her spot
on top of the general leaderboard. The day smiled on France's Nénette
(Gautier et Joseph Guillou, Gauthier Thomas) that finished in second place
and the Spanish team on Gunter (Javier Scherk, Gustavo Lima, Paulo
Manso) who got a third and climbed to fourth place overall after five races.
Two more days to go and to bounce back for some of the crews, like the
Russian crews of Annapurna and Even Better that keep
their second and third place overall respectively.
Among
the Twelves tactics were also the key, with Sovereign getting
the best start and leading to the finsh line, keeping France and
Chancegger behind. In
the Vintage Marconi >15 metres division Manitou succeeded in
beating her sistership Enterprise. Among the < 15 metres the
California 32 one-design Cholita with today's win climbed to first
overall, as did a newcomer to Cannes, Patrizio Bertelli's New York
30 Linnet in the gaffers' division, keeping Fife's designed Eva
in second.
The
Classics too had a tough time today, trying to avoid the worst of rainstorms
and getting the best out of shifty and patchy breezes under the dark grey
skies. The gorgeous 23 Metre Cambria and the huge gaff schooner
Elena showed the way to their little sisters but could not catch
the leader Moonbeam IV in corrected time, that confirmed her domination
in the class in front of Hallowe’en. Freya of
Midgard scored her second win in the Spirit of Tradition, while Arcadia
won today's race in the Classics division, with Ganbare keeping
her first place in front of Outlaw.
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