Allen RS Feva World Championships at Yacht Club de Carnac - Day 3
by Bill Tucker 30 Jul 2014 12:51 BST
26 July - 1 August 2014
Final Series racing starts
This was where the serious racing really notched up another couple of gears with the talent pools fully concentrated after the qualification series finished. The forecast had a sunny moderate day of 12 knots or so lined up. The reality was that the sea breeze kicked up in full with the third race concluding in 20 to 22 knots average. The physical and mental challenge was seriously on. The general running order was Silver fleet followed by Bronze fleet on the outer loop with the Gold fleet 3rd off on the inner loop. But as some swanky general once said - no plan survives first contact, and so it was here. For Race 1 of the final series Silver and Bronze did what was required but Gold got hung up badly with a couple of generals and a re-jig of the course and so they got Outer loop too to be able to get Silver off again. However not all the Silvers checked their course at the committee boat and shot off at high speed in the wrong direction when reaching the windward mark for their Race 2. About a dozen or so of the leaders suffered this fate. Another learning experience! The consequence of all this was that both Silver and Bronze were virtually back ashore before Gold got their third race of the day in.
We would have said that the youngsters were shattered and would get a good night's sleep but the Dutch team were spotted playing beach rugby with about 20 a side as the sun was bathing Carnac in a warm late evening glow! Still the next day was a lay day with the Nations Cup 2 boat team racing, beach games and a BBQ so there was recovery time laid on.
As for the racing Harvey Martin & Bobby Hewitt had a red letter day scoring 2,1,1 to improve their qualification position of 7th to take the event lead. Clearly they were just warming up in the Q series! Pretty much all boats behind them counted at least one mediocre result in their string for the day. That will make it very interesting and a lot closer when the discard kicks in after the next race. Edward Norbury & Charlie Hutchings retained their 2nd place overall with solid numbers but counting a 14th at present. Markus Lilienthal & Uko Rasmus Tideman of Estonia got identical numbers save that their off target race was 13th putting them in 3rd overnight. A big mover on the day were Willemijn & Manus Offerman from Holland who move into 4th with 4,2,18 and rose from 12th to 4th.
Things will be a lot tighter when the discards kick in but so far the top 10 include GBR x2, EST, NED, CZE, GBR, NED, GBR, NED, GBR in that order! Lithuanians Simonas Jarsovas & Gabriele Petraityte are in the middle of a tight group in 14th that also includes Italians Giacomo Giambarda & Daniele Minoni currently in 17th.
Silver Fleet results are equally mixed at present in terms of most results having apparent outliers amongst them. The podium is currently made up of William & James Cunliffe, George Tardrew & Sam Lythgoe, Jean Leo Touffet & Jade Saunier (FRA). Bronze fleet podium positions overnight are Thore Wagner & Lara Marie Liebherz (GER), Martijn Jessurun & Nynke Nell (NED) and Finn Lasse Andresen & Jannes Marquardsen (GER).
The Ladies trophy is the hottest ticket in town at the moment with the leading three (Jessie Main & Poppy Gilks - GBR, Hannah & Maddie Bristow - GBR, Caroline Heiberg & Marie Bordal - NOR) in consecutive places separated by a total of 2 points!
Follow the action via daily updates on the RS Feva Class website at www.rsfeva.org twitter #rsfevaworlds Facebook www.facebook.com/RSFeva and Instagram rssailing.
Full RS manufacturer support will be available for the duration of the event.