Even
at one of the most glamorous of sailing venues sometimes mother nature
intervenes. A series of summer thunderstorms caused havoc with the
regular breezes on Lake Garda putting an end to any chance of racing on
day one of the McDougall + McConaghy Moth Worlds.
On
Monday evening at a colourful opening ceremony where the local Fraglia
Vela Malcesine club Optimist team kids acted as the 25 nation flag
bearers, proudly parading through the streets of Malcesine to an opening
ceremony at the picturesque Castello Scaligero, but the black clouds
and thunder storms threatened.
Early
on Tuesday morning for race day one, the weather was looking good. The
morning Pelèr was blasting down the lake from the North with white water
and clear skies. But as the first two groups of the fleet of 220 boats
prepared to launch, some black clouds streamed in over the mountains
threatening some wild summer thunder storm activity. The two race areas
were experiencing big shifts in the breeze and anything between 2 knots
and 15 knots.
The
Yellow fleet did get into a start sequence but a big shift minutes
before the start put and end to any chance of racing. Then a huge black
thunder cloud loomed over the horizon from Riva del Garda shutting down
the breeze and sending some impressive lightning displays over the
lake.
Race
Management had no choice but to ere on the side of caution and send the
fleet home for safety reasons. Once the storms had cleared the skies
cleared, the sun came out for a glorious evening but alas the breeze had
shut down for the day.
The
revised schedule for the Qualifying Series on Wednesday 26 July is for
an early start for two groups (Red and Yellow) of 8.25am (local time).
Blue and Green groups will not start before 10.00hrs (local time).
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