Light winds upset Santander schedule on day four
Written by RYA | 15 September 2014
Just two races possible in 49er class as light winds plague Santander Worlds
It should have been a marathon race day on day four of the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander, with some 35 races across eight classes in the schedule on Monday (15 September).
But with painfully light and unsettled winds, instead just two races for one half of the 49er line-up were possible, leaving a hot and frustrating wait for the remainder of the fleets.
The 49er yellow fleet were the only ones to see any action, with British pairing Dave Evans and Ed Powys happy with their steady start amid their unpreferred light wind conditions, posting 7,14 for their opening day’s efforts.
The world number-six ranked duo have claimed podium finishes at the EUROSAF circuit regattas of Sail for Gold and Kiel Week this year, and are hoping to consolidate these with a strong showing at the World Championships.
“We’ve had ups and downs this year. We’ve had some really good regattas and we have all our good kit out for this event,” Evans explained. “Once the breeze is up and we’re out onto the wires we’re confident, and the lighter breeze is always something we’ve worked on, so it’s nice to have come out of this first day without too big a score.”
“It’s like sitting in a sauna trying to play chess!” described Evans of the hot, light wind racing at the Spanish venue today.
“It gets pretty hot and sweaty, but it’s good that the whole fleet opens up and every boat is going to go the same speed in those kind of conditions. If someone makes a good tactical call then they’ll win. It’s anyone’s race and a lot more open in the lighter breeze.”
“It was light, it was going to be quite tidal and tricky conditions with a big fleet so for us today was about not getting any big scores, I think it was the sort of day where people could have come in and said it could have been ten [places] better or ten worse, so we had a solid start and nothing big and silly so that’s a happy start for us.” the Cardiff sailor concluded.
Nic Asher and Fynn Sterritt had the second best day of the British contenders in the 49er yellow fleet, following up a big first race score of 30 with a second in the subsequent race, while Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign will be hoping to bounce back from a bad start to their World Championship campaign when they resume racing tomorrow. The European silver medallists were adjudged to have false-started in the first race of the regatta, and went on to post a 20th in their second race.
“It wasn’t our brightest hour out there,” Sign admitted.
“We started out with an OCS and you’re always on the back foot then trying not to force anything when you’re starting the next time. You try and give yourself the opportunity to get off the startline and it proves quite tricky.
“Hopefully we can turn things around for the next one.”
“We’ll be taking the next races as they come. It’s definitely not over yet. We’ve just got to try and get into gold fleet, keep doing what we know we have done in the past very well. We’re still heads up and pushing on.”
Although the other classes were released out onto their course areas, racing proved impossible for the 49er blue fleet, the RS:X Men and Women’s windsurfers, 470 Men and Women, the 49erFX, Finn and Nacra 17 sailors, leaving regatta organisers again playing catch up for Tuesday’s fifth day of competition, and likely to be aiming for an earlier start time than the original 1300hrs.
Racing in Santander sees a staggered schedule across the ten classes:
12-18 September: Laser and Laser Radial
13-19 September: RS:X Men and RS:X Women
14-20 September: 470 Men and 470 Women
15-21 September: 49er, 49erFX, Finn and Nacra 17
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