SB20 Portuguese National Championship at Clube Naval de Cascais - Day 3
by SB20 AUS Media 23 Jun 2019 11:27 BST
20-23 June 2019
Day 3 - SB20 Portuguese National Championship fleet © Anna Zykova
Ukraine's Julia Freespirit (GameChanger) is closing in on current leader and reigning SB20 Portuguese National Champions (Dom Pedro Hotels/Generali), helmed by José Paulo Ramada after a consistent day on the water on Day Three of the 2019 SB20 Portuguese National Championship.
Heading into the final day of racing, the Ukrainian team (33 points) sits eight points behind Ramada (25 points) and will be looking to stake their claim as a boat to beat heading into the 2019 SB20 World Championship in Hyeres, France in October.
But skipper, Freespirit, isn't planning too far ahead, rather, is focusing on the final three races of the regatta.
"With 25 per cent of the regatta still to go, it is too early to be thinking towards the final positions - we have three races today and around eight teams could be in a position to win," said Freespirit.
But Freespirit seems comfortable being in the pack that is hunting down the leaders.
"I wouldn't want to be Dom Pedro [Hotels/Generali] deciding how to defend his lead. For us, we will sail as well as we can and see where we end up," said Freespirit.
Day Three was sailed in very light breezes with the right side of the course heavily favoured. "Yesterday was light and a strictly one-sided race-track," said Australian skipper, Elliott Noye.
"To be anywhere near the top you needed to be off the start boat and tacking right, so if you missed the start, which we did in the first two races, it made it very difficult to take any places back, especially in 5 to 8 knots," said Noye.
Ramada's compatriot Vasco Serpa (Animal/Sail Cascais) is still within striking distance on 39 points, while Russia's Igor Ginzburg (Absolut) is on 42 points. Russia's MST team (Vasily Grigoriev) is in fifth place on 58 points with Australia's Porco Rosso (Elliott Noye) in sixth place, also on 58 points.
Local knowledge and the benefit of travelling within Europe to compete in the SB20 2018/19 Winter Series in Cascais has proved advantageous for the top five teams.
The forecast for the final day of the championship is for choppy seas and 11 to 16 knots from the south, with the winner likely to be the boat that adapts quickly to the prevailing conditions.