29er EuroCup at Fraglia Vela Riva, Lake Garda, Italy - Day 1
by Elena Giolai 31 Oct 2014 21:09 GMT
30 October - 2 November 2014
29er Eurocup on Lake Garda day 1 © Elena Giolai
Slovenians Janezic & Podlogar lead
The final leg of the 29er Eurocup is under way at Riva del Garda and for Fraglia Vela Riva it is the final regatta in what has been a highly intense 2014. So far Lake Garda, Trentino has offered up two beautiful days providing just the right winds for the 84 crews from 12 European nations.
On the first day of competition-Thursday- 3 fairly regular races were completed with calm, southerly winds of 8-10 knots and dead-calm waters. Given the season the Regatta Committee gave the go-ahead for the following day's races to start at 9.00 am. in order to make the most of the wind from the north which is always more reliable and intense in autumn. In facts gusts reached up to 18 knots giving the top 15-20 crews high-speed, thrilling races while the rest of the fleet struggled to keep their boats under control in the strong wind gusts.
After the two morning races on Friday everyone was back in the water after lunch with the arrival of the wind from the south, which being a thermal wind, is quite weak in this season. Two more races were completed in winds of 8-10 knots, bringing to a total of seven races so far with two days left of competition (exactly half of the 14 races total which are scheduled).
The crew which has stood out from the very first race is that of the Slovenian crew of Janezic-Podlogar. They are currently the leaders in the general standings of the Continental Circuit and now have a ten point lead over Germans Farien-Klossel in the temporary standings. The Slovenians showed much more consistent form in respect to their opponents, always finishing in the top five apart from an eleventh which was discarded.
A great comeback was made by the Danish crew of Nyborg-Olsen who after a mediocre first three races, (14-16-21), today fought back with 2 firsts, a second and an eleventh. Showing particularly inconsistent form were Salamon-Bergman of Sweden who alternated excellent results, (6-1-2), with those halfway down the standings. They are eleventh overall.
The first of the women's crews is Stuhlemmer-Schuchmann of Germany who are in thirteenth place overall. They scored an excellent fifth place in today's seventh and final race.
Tonight all the crews will be celebrating Halloween at the "Riva Bar" and tomorrow it's up early again to race with the north wind.
Results can be found here.
More information at www.fragliavelariva.it/en/regatta/1588/view