Light winds upset day two of Santander Worlds test event
Written by RYA | 10 September 2013
2014 Worlds venue serves up rain and light winds on second day of test regatta
Rain and light winds stopped play at the Santander City Trophy on Tuesday (10 September), with no fleets able to complete their scheduled day’s racing at the 2014 Sailing World Championship venue.
British Sailing Team crews saw some racing action on what was the first day for the Nacra 17 multihull event and the RS:X men’s and women’s windsurfers, with one race apiece at this test event for the 2014 ISAF Worlds, but there was frustration for the 470 women’s fleet whose sole race was abandoned on the final leg.
Nacra 17 world silver medallists Ben Saxton and Hannah Diamond won the only race of the day for the catamaran class amid some testing conditions, as Diamond explained.
“Visibility wasn’t very good today because of the rain, so it’s pretty tricky to try and plan your tactics when you can’t see the windward mark! But we had a good race, managing to pull back from fifth to first,” said the 23-year-old.
“It’s a really good learning opportunity though – on our course the waves were coming from every direction instead of with the wind as you might normally expect, so it will be interesting learning to sail in that ready for the Worlds next year.”
Nick Dempsey and Bryony Shaw both saw solid starts to their windsurfing events, with World Champion Dempsey posting a fourth and Shaw a fifth in the only one of their two scheduled races.
There was no racing in the 470 Men’s fleet, which Luke Patience and Joe Glanfield lead after two races, while Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark were in charge and on the final run of the 470 Women’s race today when race officials called it off.
“We did about 70 minutes of racing and unfortunately we got abandoned right at the end,” the West Mersea sailor Clark explained.
“We were winning the race at the time, but it is what it is – it doesn’t really matter.
“Hannah and I are getting better and are just getting back into the racing. It’s really shifty and really patchy conditions [here] which we feel really out of practice in having had the break. But I don’t really feel like we’ve done that much sailing in that [condition] anyway in the time that we have had together.”
The 2012 silver medallist continued: “It’s really good to be out here ahead of the Worlds, just to have a look at the conditions. Spain isn’t very sunny – it rains! It’s good to get your head into gear about what to expect for next year and to feel comfortable in the surroundings here.”
Racing continues at the Santander City Trophy on Wednesday 11 September. The Laser and Laser Radial classes will start on Thursday 12 September.
Medal races are scheduled to take place for the 470 Men, 470 Women and Finn classes on Saturday 14 September, with medal races for all other classes on Sunday 15 September.
The 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander will form part of the country qualification process for the 2016 Olympic Games. For full regatta results and information visit www.santander2014.com
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