La Torche PWA Grand Slam - Light winds on day 3

by Chris Yates on 21 Oct 2014 As expected the third day of the 2014 La Torche PWA Grand Slam proved to be a quiet affair with very light winds throughout the day. After a chilly and overcast start, the sun eventually broke through to produce another beautiful afternoon in La Torche.

Although there was no windsurfing action on the water today, many of the sailors took advantage of the waves on offer, either surfing or SUPping. Looking Ahead,after a quiet three opening days - in terms of competition - tomorrow should see La Torche explode into life, hopefully enabling a full day of exciting contest. The forecast is currently predicting winds of 20-30 knots from the west-north-west in the morning, before swinging north-west during the afternoon, accompanied by waves of up to 3.1 metres.

The current plan of action will be to kick off the day with the opening round of the slalom, before switching to waves in the afternoon, when the wind is expected to swing more cross onshore. However, as always the forecast can easily change, so the final decision will be made in the morning, once conditions have been assessed by the race director and head judge. Before the main event of the waves can begin the following trials races must be completed, as sixteen sailors battle it out for the remaining eight places in the main draw:

Trials Race 1: Josh Angulo (Angulo / Gun Sails) vs Justin Denel (RRD / RRD) vs Pablo Ramirez (Patrik / Sailloft Hamburg) vs Yann Sune.

Trials Race 2: Albert Pijoan (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) vs Nicolas Akgazciyan (99 International / Point-7 / AL360 / Maui Ultra Fins) vs Marc Paré (Patrik / Simmer / Maui Ultra Fins) vs Andrea Rosati (RRD / NeilPryde).

Trials Race 3: Maciek Rutkowski (Patrik / Point-7) vs Julien Quentel (RRD / NeilPryde) vs Markus Rydberg (Simmer) vs Philippe Mesmeur (F2 / Point-7 / Mystic).

Trials Race 4: Aleix Sanllehy (Goya Windsurfing / MFC) vs Juliano Scalabrin vs Arthur Arutkin (Fanatic / North) vs Jamie Hancock (Tabou).??

Alex Mussolini (Tabou / GA Sails) speaking earlier today:'It’s been a very tough competition year, we haven’t been particularly lucky with conditions this time around, so it feels like you really get punished for any mistake you make or if you have a three minute blip in your heat. It’s not like tennis where you can have a bad game and then recover, so there’s a lot of pressure riding on each heat.'

Tomorrow promises to be a long and enthralling day with plenty of brilliant action on the water. The slalom should see challenging and exhilarating racing as slalom meets waves again after Sylt, whilst the wave guys will be going as big as they can to wow the judges. Skippers’ meeting for all fleets will take place at 8:30am - skippers’ meeting for the wave fleet will be held outside the PWA Office, whilst the slalom skippers’ meeting will take place in the south of the bay. The first possible start for the slalom will be 9:15am, whilst the action in the waves can commence from 9:30am.