RS:X Youth Windsurfing World Championships – A difficult day

by Bas Edmonds / RS:X Class on 28 Jun 2017 Lake Garda, famous for its three brothers of winds; the Ora, Peler and Balin, left the 137 sailors at the RS:X Youth World Championships hugely frustrated today as all three “wind brothers” failed to show up.

With a grey damp start to the first scheduled day of racing, competitors were greeted with a flat calm lake, not the best start to the event and certainly it wouldn’t have settled the nerves of the sailors, for many of whom this event is the pinnacle of the windsurfing season.

The weather teased and toyed with the sailors and race officials, building to a tempting 8-9 knots which pushed the fleet out in anticipation. However, as promptly as it had built, it died away leaving coaches to tow in their sailors and the race committee scratching their heads.

To not recognise the efforts of the race committee on such a difficult day would be foolish. The efforts that go into such a teasing day of light winds is huge with the volunteers wanting to get sailors afloat and racing, but only if the racing would be fair.

Thankfully, one part of the weather did play ball for the afternoon as the sun made an appearance which made the waiting around much more bearable. One thing that was evident in the board park is that, whilst the fiercest of competitors on the water, there are many excellent friendships made ashore which is a strength of the class at all levels of competition.

For the race organisers, plan B has to come out with the racing moved to 0800 in the morning in hope of better wind then – a chance to get some racing onto the scoresheet and calm the nerves. The forecast still looks unpredictable for Wednesday and plan B certainly has its risks but there aren’t that many options left.

Ewa Jodlowska, the Class Race Officer for the event, explained: “We tried our hardest to race today but it wasn’t easy to predict the weather and get racing in. We have moved the racing to as early as possible tomorrow in the hope that we get some good winds for good fair racing.”

2017 RS:X Windsurfing Youth Championships including the 2017 Lake Garda RS:X U17 Windsurfing Championships are organised by Circolo Surf Torbole in co-operation with the International RS:X Class Association on June 24th to July 1st.

The supporters and partners of the 2017 RS:X Youth Worlds in Torbole are North Lake Garda Trentino, Hydro Dolomiti Energia, Cassa Rurale Alto Garda, RIW, NeilPryde, NP, together with the International RS:X Class Association and World Sailing.