A long morning by the beach, under a grey sky and with no sign of wind. The Techno 293 Worlds’ fleet run into one of those slow days that one would expect on different racing courses – not in Cagliari. Well, it can happen here too, sometimes. After an early lycra ceremony to celebrate the best sailors from the first day, the kids had plenty of time to check the equipment, make new friends, play fresbee, snack around or take a nap.[more]
Only after 2 p.m. a bit of blue sky finally announced a very light breeze. The horn and the flags sending the Under 17 and Under 15 boys to the course started a run to the beach, where the boards had been sitting since late morning. It was going to be a pumping race, for sure, and just getting to the course was quite a warm up.
Competitors found at the start 4 to 6 knots from south-east. Race Committee waited for the wind to settle then decided to give it a try. The two Under 15 boys groups started first but they hadn’t even reached the first mark when the wind shifted and the race had to be abandoned. The Plus fleets and the Under 17 girls were still ashore, in the meantime.
After a few tries, both Under 17 and Under 15 boys managed to start and to complete a race, but in such a light wind some surprising results were inevitable. Make a poor start (or a poor choice on the course) and your race is finished. No way to rescue it. On the opposite side, some lightweight competitors that didn’t have an easy day on Monday got their revenge. At the end, two new names in the top spots for the Under 17: ISR 253 Yoav Cohen (winner for the Yellow flight) and ISR 234 Gad Matosevich (Blue flight). France still dominates overall, keeping Mateo Dussarps in the lead and reserving the other two lycras for Florian Salette and Tom Arnoux on Wednesday.
Similar story with the Under 15. Definitely a good day for ITA 4 Edoardo Tanas (Yellow flight) and POL 97 Jakub Sykula (Blue), while Bar Navri (ISR 250) added a disappointing 23 to the impressive 1-3-1 of the first day. No excuses at the end: “I wasn’t expecting to race, today”, said Navri, still in the lead thanks to the first discard of the championship. “But I made some wrong choices on the course. I will need some stronger wind for the rest of the week”. Now Charalampos Kogias of Greece is just one point behind, followed by three Italians (Montanucci, Tanas and Stancampiano). It’s going to be an interesting race.
The forecast for Wednesday is not very incouraging. We’ll see. Race Committee moved the first possible start from 10 a.m. to 10:30. Lycra ceremony at 9:15.
By the way: if anybody is wondering about the beautiful and nasty-looking creature photographed by our Alessandro Spiga yesterday close to the start line – it really is nasty. It has been identified by some experts as a Rhopilema nomadica and it can sting badly. Originally from the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, this jellyfish moved into the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal and created a quite a few problems along the coast in Israel. It had never been spotted in Sardinia, before.
