Twist and Shout on Day 2 of SSL Gold Cup European Qualifiers Round 2
by SSL Gold Cup 16 Jul 01:16 BST
13-17 July 2026
The early morning alarm clock in Grandson was the crack of thunder as a storm brought rain, hail and lightning to the lake, before clearing by daybreak.
After a calm start, the wind filled in from the east and racing was under way.
Group G Race 3
Soon after 11am, the Bulgarian Lions, Young Turks and Portuguese Navigators formed up perfectly on the start, as all three teams crossed the line in unison with Bulgaria winning the committee boat end, and all three teams holding on starboard tack for a full three minutes.
When they did tack, the Lions led the way, with the Navigators having to work hard to keep their air clear behind. Portugal only just cleared behind Türkiye as they pivoted round the mark, and then had significant issues with their spinnaker, dropping them back from the leading Lions and Young Turks.
With the dark clouds building ominously at the northeastern end of the lake, and the wind building to 15 knots, the Lions and Young Turks split marks at the leeward gate. Using the light wind jibs, the teams were positioning their tracks at the very back, trying to spill power from the huge rigs, while hiking to the max.
The rumble of thunder from the Jura mountains added to the drama as just a single metre separated Türkiye and Bulgaria at times.
The Young Turks led on the final downwind leg, but a problem with the spinnaker drop line allowed the Lions to close on to their stern, setting them up for a final attack, but Türkiye defended valiantly to seal their second race win.
The storm cloud enveloped the lake and the fleet was sent back to the marina.
Things remain extraordinarily close in the group with Türkiye on 7 points, Portugal or 6 points and Bulgaria on 5. During the break I caught up with the Bulgarian Captain and Coach Yavor Kolev to find out how the improving team is approaching the event:
"Our first goals were the best teamwork and the technical part of sailing the boat fast. I think we've nailed that already. You can see on the water when we are on a beat or downwind we have speed, we have good manoeuvres and good mark roundings.
"The next step is the tactical decisions and to put some more aggression in our decisions and going into the fight with other teams. Winning is about split second decision making, so we need to do it confidently and with assertiveness. That is the step we need to take to win the event."
As the first three races have shown, any of the teams are capable of winning, and Yavor is sure his team can also climb to the top spot:
"With the identical boats, everyone is on a level playing field in the beginning, so climbing the learning curve fastest is winning. Our competitors are good sailors with a lot of experience, but so are we. Our team is formed of people who are sailing a lot on keelboats at a really high level all around Europe and beyond, in teams which are winning championships and prestigious Mediterranean regattas. We are dangerous competitors."
Group F Race 3
After a long delay while the wind reestablished itself after the storm, Group F finally got racing at 3pm in a 6 knot wind from 250 degrees.
The fleet started cleanly with Greece on the pin end and Ukraine further to windward. Finland were a couple of metres back, which proved costly the opening manoeuvres.
Ukraine's United team made the best of shifts to lead at the windward mark, with the right hand side generally paying off most. The Greek Odysseus team rounded second with Finland's Northern Magic third.
Positions stayed steady on the first downwind leg, with the race committee increasing the course length and rotating the course axis 10 degrees to the right.
The United Team did a great job of forcing the Odysseus team left by tacking on them, while Northern Magic climbed the leaderboard with excellent upwind speed. The final tack into the new windward mark saw the Greek team losing out heavily in the disturbed air of both Ukraine and Finland.
The final downwind leg was processional, with Ukraine taking the win with Finland second and Greece third.
Group F Race 4
Greece won the pin end on the start with Finland at the committee boat end and Ukraine a notch back, forced to tack away to the right after a couple of minutes.
With Ukraine and Finland tied on points, it wasn't long until the Northern Magic team tacked over to shadow the United team, while the Odysseus team continued on starboard all the way to the port lay line.
On the right Ukraine were forced into a double tack when Finland tacked on them, which all played into the hands of Odysseus, who led at the windward mark by nearly 200 metres with just two tacks on the entire leg. Northern Magic again tacked on top of the United team to round 60 metres ahead.
Greece maintained their lead downwind while Ukraine took a left hand course to close the gap on Finland, splitting marks at the leeward gate.
After splitting initially upwind, Greece took a defensive posture above both Finland and Ukraine to lead at the final windward mark, but were hampered by the mother of all twists in their spinnaker, leading to remonstration on board and their lead lost in an instant to the Northern Magic team. Their woes were further compounded by a disastrous gybe resulting in another twist, dropping them behind Ukraine as well, as the teams made their way to the finish.
A pair of gybes by both Ukraine and Finland resulted in another photo finish, as the Northern Magic just pipped the United team to take the win and the overnight lead by a point, with the dejected Odysseus team snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Norway's Mid Bow and Grinder Martin Gahmberg described what the feeling was like on board as the approached the finish:
"It was hectic, but actually, when it gets this windy, I move back in the boat to do the grinding when we need two grinders but it's really exciting. You have to execute the gybes perfectly to the finish. We have this Finnish thing we call 'robot mode' to stop things getting too loud, but we forgot to say the 'robot mode' in the end, and it was pretty loud and hectic in the boat."
Day two may have been disrupted by the storms, but the race team did a remarkable job to leave us just a single race behind schedule.
Find out more at sslgoldcup.worldofsailors.com