Contender Worlds at Riva del Garda - Day 4
by Paul Walker 7 Aug 2004 07:59 BST
Action from day 4 of the Contender worlds on Lake Garda © Paul Walker
With races still to catch up the race officer elected to go for a more reasonable 11am start. So with a gently building southerly, the fleet headed towards the start area.
The wind remained relatively light for the duration of the race which was won in the gold fleet by Australian Stephen Grimes and in the silver fleet by Brit Chris Mitchell.
Race 6:
The wind had increased for race 6 This allowed Aussie Marcus Hamilton to once again demonstrate his amazing downwind boatspeed and dominate the race and win his third race of the series.
The silver fleet was once again dominated by Chris Mitchell indicating that if he had been able to sail the entire qualification series he could have ended up in the gold fleet.
Race 7:
Unfortunately, the wind started to ease for the start of race\7 and as everyone knows when the wind drops in the afternoon on Garda it does not come back!
The wind became quite shifty with usually favoured right hand side generally not paying as Stuart Jones found to his cost. The Gold fleet was won by Dutch sailor Rene Heynen after race leader Jones failed to spot his error until too late. The silver fleet was won bySilver fleet leader Stefano Lagi (ITA) with the emerging Chris Mitchell putting in an uncharacteristic 42nd
Overall results after 7 races:
Gold fleet:
1st Andrea Bonnezzi (ITA)
2nd Marcus Hamilton (AUS)
3rd Virgilio Frau (ITA)
4th Stuart Jones (GBR)
5th Tim Holden (GBR)
Silver fleet:
1st Stefano Lagi (ITA)
2nd Alan Griffith (AUS)
3rd Alessandro Macchelli (ITA)
4th Tom Seppings (GBR)
5th Francesco Lombardi (ITA)