First discard tightens the standings at 2018 ORC European Championship
by ORC Media 13 Sep 04:07 BST
8-15 September 2018
The Czech team on the Swan 42 Daring Sisters are off to a fast start to score their first race win in today's first race in Class AB - 2018 ORC European Championship © Pavel Nesvadba
After another leisure afternoon start to two inshore races, Day Three at the 2018 ORC European Championship featured similar light but raceable conditions and an interesting set of results. The two Estonian teams that have each dominated Class AB and Class C, respectively, are being more closely challenged now in the third day of racing, with races decided by some very close corrected time margins as teams new to ORC championship-level sailing get closer and closer in performance to the seasoned veterans that still hold the lead. This is the halfway point in the regatta, with two days and four races left to decide the two new ORC European champions.
"This is quite difficult sailing, where every second counts," said skipper Easy Swissa who is racing his Israeli X-41 Next. "ORC is only 4 years old in use in Israel, and we are still learning the system and the high level of competition at regattas like this. We are the same boat type as the class leader, but they rate a little better due to their optimizations, and its these that can make the difference in the results. But overall I think this system is quite fair."
For example, in the second race today Next finished 3rd place in corrected time, 20 seconds ahead in elapsed time but only 9 seconds behind in corrected time behind Mati Sepp and his Estonian team on Technonicol, and only 25 seconds behind in corrected time behind race winner St Anna, Mikhail Kadetov's Skif 42 from Russia. A large 30-degree wind shift in this race was accounted for in the scoring model to keep the ratings fair and a course adjustment made in the final lap.
And in the first race today Technonicol fell into second place behind another competitor, the Czech-based team led by Tomas Dolezal and Radim Parizek on their Swan 42 Daring Sisters, who walloped the fleet in both elapsed and corrected time by an enormous 3:22 margin to earn their first race win.
Meanwhile in Class C the other Estonian team, Aivar Tuulberg's Katariina II, continues to dominate the results with solid, mistake-free sailing, and in the first race today they too crushed their rivals like Daring Sisters did in the other class by an even greater margin: 4:51. And while their nearest rival - Rudolf Vrestal's Czech team on his Italia 9.98 Giulia - is only two points back, after the discard of worst scores the podium race has tightened with the modified Farr 30 Tamumm from Greece tied in points for third place in the standings with Uri Zaks's X-35 X-President from Israel.
Except for the start time of 13:00, tomorrow things will likely not be the same as today due to higher forecast winds of 12-15 knots. This change in conditions may make the racing even tighter as more boats will see the same conditions throughout the course area. In this penultimate day the results will become even more important as teams prepare to make their final run for the podium on Friday, which is also now forecast to have these stronger winds.
For more information about the 2018 ORC European Championship in Limassol, visit the event website at european2018.orc.org.
More on the ORC rating system, ORC certificates and events can be found at www.orc.org.