RS Feva World Championships in Santander - Day 3
by Golly Tucker 28 Jul 2016 09:34 BST
26 July 2016
Beautiful day in Santander – perfect for sitting on the beach but wind was a premium commodity. Teams were focussed, keen and eager but had to deal with the tough waiting for sufficient stable breeze to go racing. To be fair most dealt with it very well. By mid afternoon the breeze stabilised sufficiently at around 6kts for the fleet to make waves.
Patience, smooth manoeuvres and not too many of them paid dividends – that and going the right way. The leaders came from the right and middle whilst those on the left were playing catch up!
Gold fleet went to the outer loop whilst silver and bronze got the inner loop. The tide played a significant issue as it pushed the approaching starboard tackers onto the mark. So any port tackers trying to nip in quickly at the mark in the big swell got a free 360 for hitting it. There were 360s going on all over in the tricky conditions.
Someone also fed the silver fleet some go-faster pills as they ended up intertwined with the gold coming in. Bronze managed a general recall and some last moment postponements for a variety of reasons. So only one race was possible.
In the Gold fleet Freddie Peters/Louis Johnson staged an amazing recovery to take second and the overall lead. William Pank/Finlay Dickinson were third and second overall with Jack Lewis/Lucas Marshall in tenth and third overall. Kiwis Eli Leifting/Rose Dickson remain right in the hunt as do Italians Mattia Zinetti/Davide Carbonelli. The truth of the matter is that there were a lot of big climbers but that also means there were a lot who might just have already used their discard.
In Silver Ellie Driver/Rachael Cross remain in the lead but only 5 points separate the top six. The Argentinian Soldano family are 2nd with Augustin Clot/Adam Joseph Pheasant from Hong Kong in third. The top 10 are also graced by Italians, Dutch and Czechs!
Bronze fleet saw a remarkable Maltese 1-2 until it was realised that one of them was Black flagged. So Megan Ferry/Emilie Gregory took the win and are tenth. Leaders overnight are Patrick/Connor Whelan from Italians Carnelli Riccardo/Dalphino Sofia and Aussies Sylvie/Rohan Stannage. The latter are the amazing tie break winners amongst no less than four boats on the same points!
More news tomorrow folks. Stay tuned on the RS Feva Facebook page for frequent videos and updates!
Results so far