Final Day

After thunderstorms and strong winds prevented racing on the fifth day the fleet were sent afloat for an 8am start in attempt to catch the night time peler wind that blows from the mountains overlooking the northern end of Lake Garda.

The 280 competitors were rewarded with a 12 knot wind that gradually built throughout the morning to 20 knots allowing two races to be completed in the “finals” fleets.

In the southerly winds that have prevailed on previous days the best track upwind was to head for the shore. In the northerly wind the same tactics did not pay with the wind being lighter close to the shore. In the first race those who chose the middle were first to show at the windward mark.

Abdullah JANAHI from Bahrain had a comfortable lead but threw it away when he turned immediately downwind missing out the spreader mark. Behind him Mathieu FREI from France made the same mistake which was surprising as the course configuration was the same as it had been all week and Frei had led several of the qualifier races. Series leader, Dany STANSIC (SLO) was in trouble at the back of the fleet but his nearest rival, Justin ONVLEE (RSA), was sixth and gained two extra places courtesy of Janahi and Frei.

Frei quickly realised his mistake and beat back to the spreader mark to round in 12th. By the time Janahi looked behind he was 150 metres down the track and by the time he beat beat back to correct his mistake most of the fleet had passed the spreader mark.

Onlee pulled through to first on the next two legs to round the windmark ahead of his fellow countryman, Sean Heydenrich and Frei. Onvlee held on to his lead to finish ahead of Frei and Heydenrich.

Thunderstorms to the south of the course area threatened the second race but the apart from an increase in wind strength and rain the fleet enjoyed another good race. Onvlee got a good start near the port end of the line. Frei, who was also fighting for a top three position was squeezed out of the start at the port end and had to cross behind most of the fleet before he could find clear wind. Onvlee was once again in the leading group at the first mark in fourth one place ahead of Stansic. At the next rounding of the windward mark Onvlee had taken the lead from Serkan Yapan
TUR whilst the lighter Stansic was dropping back.

Onvlee kept the lead until the finish to give him a comfortable overall victory from Frei.

Final overall results after 10 races with two discards:

1 RSA “ONVLEE Justin, Male” “9,0”
2 FRA “FREI Mathieu, Male” “21,0”
3 CRO “KALEBIC Ivo, Male” “29,0”
4 IRL “DOLAN Alexander, Male” “35,0”
5 ITA “DI IASIO Anita, Female” “37,0”
6 FIN “COLLURA Pierre Angelo, Male” “39,0”
7 GBR “DE BOLTZ Richard, Male” “43,0”
8 RUS “LISOVENKO Igor, Male” “43,0”
9 TUR “YAPAN Serkan, Male” “46,0”
10 GBR “HOLLOWAY Max, Male” “47,0”