IOM Europeans at Sailing Club of Rijeka, Cres, Croatia - Day 3
by Icarus Sailing Media 22 Nov 2012 08:42 GMT
17-24 November 2012
From strong to light, the wind brings changes at the leaderboard
The third day of the IOM Europeans 2012 started powerfully with bright sunshine and the wind averaging 16 knots. No need to delay then for the race committee that started races at 9am sharp and by 10am a full round of 5 Heats was completed. Graham Elliot from the UK was the winner leaving Croatia's Matic in second, with the first place changing hands many times between them.
The second sequence started right after since the forecast was not very promising for later in the day. Now it was the current championship leader that had to defend his position and so he did. After two strategic downwind legs, UK's Gibson managed to overtake his rivals one after the other and score the bullet leaving his main rival, Carre from France, 2nd.
And then the expected happened, the wind dropped to 4 knots and was now really shifty. So the race committee decided to wait and gave the chance to the sailors to relax and exchange opinions about their, much more technical than they seem, boats. After an hour's delay the wind was in sailable conditions again but very light in strength.
Nonetheless one more race was sailed with Croatia's Jelacic scoring the bullet. He had the lead from early on, but it was many times during the race that the UK's Roberts threaten him and passed ahead.
So after nine races sailed with 2 discards, Gibson is still in the lead, extending his gap he had from yesterday from Carre, who is now only 2 points in front of the other Briton, Elliott.
But, this championship is only half way through and the top spot is still open for everyone to claim in the days that follow.
Full results can be found here.