470s ready to go again on rest day after Rio Olympics blow out

by RYA on 16 Aug 2016 The 470 Men and Women’s classes are set to race on their rest day after seeing the last scheduled day of their opening series blown out in Rio today (Monday 15 August).

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark and Luke Patience and Chris Grube were meant to contest the final three races of their opening 10-race series today, before Wednesday’s Medal Races.

Both classes had initially been scheduled to race inside Guanabara Bay on the Escola Naval course, but a lack of breeze in the bay, combined with the 49er skiff classes blitzing through their three races on the Copacabana course saw the 470s head out on to the ocean to take advantage of the same great conditions they had enjoyed.

But once they got out there, with a weather front rapidly coming in from the south west, bringing strong pre-frontal winds of 25+ knots, the decision was made to suspend racing for the day on safety grounds.

The 470s have completed seven of their opening 10 races, and although they have officially completed enough races to constitute a series, the Games’ sailing race management team was keen to try to get as many series races completed to deliver the fairest possible competition heading into Wednesday’s Medal Race.

Mills and Clark currently sit first overall in the Women’s event with a four-point lead over Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha (USA), while Patience and Grube currently lie in 10th overall on the Men’s leaderboard.

Mills said: “We went out and it was nice winds and then 20-30 knots came in from behind. We managed to drop our main just in time in the waves and it was a pretty wacky ride in under jib!

“We waited all day with no wind inside the bay where we were meant to be racing, so we waited until the 49ers were finished to go on to their course and we were just about to crack on and the wind changed.

“We have done seven races and three more to go, so there is still a lot of event to go. We have just have to be ready for that and do the job tomorrow.”