Louay Habib blog on day 1 of the SSL Lake Grand Slam
by Louay Habib 9 Sep 2015 22:14 BST
8-12 September 2015
Torben Grael: Just a Hint of a Smile
The Opening Ceremony for the Star Sailors League Lake Grand Slam was held at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, which was attended by IOC President, Thomas Bach. At the press conference, Thomas Bach complimented the audience, which contained 12 Olympic medalist, nearly all of which were won in the International Star Class. The Star will not be an Olympic event in Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, for those of you familiar with the class, I will let you draw your own conclusions from those facts, for those of you who are not, just tune into the racing action from the SSL Grand Slam, streamed live on www.yachtsandyachting.com and make up your own mind.
The racing on Day One of the SSL Lake Grand Slam showcased a tactical battle of the highest order with no less than 21 teams making the top ten in the four races sailed. Lake Neuchatel is a magical place, rather less well known than Lake Geneva, but in many respects a much more difficult battle zone to master. Lake Geneva is dominated by the Alps but Lake Neuchatel is set in a valley with the Jura Mountains conjuring up shifty, ever changing conditions.
Arguably, the best performances on Day One came from two veterans Star skippers with long established crew as partners. Augie Diaz & Arnis Baltins top the leader board scoring a nett 11 points from three races counted (the discard kicked in on Race 4). Augie Diaz was born in Cuba but moved to Florida when he was eight and has been racing for over 50 years. Arnis Baltins has been racing the Star for over 20 years and hails from Annapolis, Maryland. The pair are known as demons in the light and scored their best results as the breeze faded.
Torben Grael & Guilherme De Almeida came out fighting winning a massive battle for the pin Race 1 and show their transom to the fleet for the rest of the four lap Windward Leeward. The Black Flag didn't quench the latino spirit in Race 2 and once again the Brazilians bolted for the line but were called over. However, they did not find out until the race was over, you should have seen Torben's face when the Line Honours gun didn't sound; Thunder would be a good description.
After racing Augie didn't give much of an interview: "Speak to Torben and Guilherme." commented Augie. "They were on fire today, the won it really." Torben Grael and Guilherme De Almeida had other things on their minds after racing. The pair made a B-Line for the media centre to watch the video footage of the Black Flag incident. One look was all it took – They were over. But after showing incredible speed and guile on the first day of racing at the SSL Lake Grand Slam, there was just a notion of a smile on Torben's face. Two bullets out of four in this fleet was a star performance, but the Black Flag discard may come back to haunt him.
Racing continues tomorrow from 09:30 (EST) watch in live with expert commentary, backed up by Virtual Eye and above all a group of phenomenal talented sailors duking it out at the SSL Grand Slam on Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland.
For more information visit the official SSL website swissopen.starsailors.com