Day One Of Racing Difficult For All

Sailors spent some eight hours on the water on the first day of racing in Zadar, Croatia. Following a few days of hot weather the forecast for day one did not look promising but the wait proved fruitful as races were sailed for everybody.

Conditions were tough for everybody, including the race committee as although it was of a decent strength, the unstable northerly breeze produced huge directional changes, resulting in much course moving to keep the racing fair for all the competitors.

The shifty breeze meant also for some interesting starting techniques and after several general recalls, especially in the ladies fleet, the black flag was the only thing that could curtail the over zealous fleet at the beginning of each race.

The leaders of the boy’s fleet currently hold a scoreline of two sixth place finishes and a fourth place, highlighting the difficult, shifty and inconsistent conditions faced by competitiors, which suggest this European Championship will be a high scoring regatta. Tomas OLIVIERA De SILVA and Antonio GOIS (POR) head the mens rankings from George VASSILAS and Evangelos-vasil MITAKIZ (GRE). Tomas was happy about the championship leaders performance on the first day in relation to the rest of the fleet.“I t was very difficult to race, because the wind was very shifty, but we have good results. In general we are satisfied with the results. Race committee did a good job.”

George VASSILAS (GRE) commented on their days racing. ” We were not consistent enough to be in the highest place, as we planned for the qualifications, but it was good. Weather is like in Greece, very hot and warm. We like Croatia, but today was a little shifty, very different from previous days. Nobody knew everything about the weather today, because it was from the North, only the Croatians knew.”

In the girls fleet, where unlike the boys there is no qualification system and the fleet are sailing a straight series, curent leaders are Hannah MILLS and Peggy WEBSTER (GBR), on equal points with Leigh KEMPTON and Kaity STORCK (USA). The jury only heard two protests last night, one an interesting situation with an in boat argument between the Sattler sisters from Austria. The decision on that protest will be announced today.

Hannah MILLS, leading the girls fleet after the first day of racing, noted.“It was good, fun sailing, but it was really shifty and gusty as well. So it was very difficult to know where to go every step of the beat, but it was good fun. We did not expect to be winning.”

Full results are available on the event website at the address below.

Overall Top Ten

Men

Ladies