2015 Melges 24 World Championship – Day 3

by Mick Anderson - SailingPIX.dk on 3 Jul 2015 2015 Melges 24 World Championship – The Swiss multi-talent Christopher Rast has put himself in the spotlight as the man to beat. Three wins on the breeziest day of the Melges 24 World Championship.

After two days of light wind racing on the waters off the coast of Middelfart, today the sailors had everything going for them: 26 degrees C, 15 knots of breeze from a southerly direction and not a cloud on the sky.

And while his nearest competitors for the gold medal - Bora Gulari (USA) and Andreas Racchelli (ITA) - began the day with being called over early in the start of race one and struggled to find a vacant spot to bear away and return to the starting line, Rast put the pedal to the metal and took off and never looked back the rest of the day.

The Swiss Moth and D35 catamaran sailing skipper took full advantage of his ability to pick the favored side of the enormous 1300 metre long starting line and after the start use their impressive boat speed to consolidate and cover the fleet.

- All day long we succeeded in starting where we'd room around us and clear air and stay away from spots with too many boats fighting for clear air. And my crew has been a lot together in all kinds of boats in the beginning of the season, so that has given us more leverage when things tighten up and we can stay cool, explains Christopher Rast after a day even he finds hard to believe.

- My role onboard really is just to start, and then try not to slow the boat down too much, and finally give the best feedback to our tactician who calls the shots. And then we just tried not to be overly aggressive on the beat and sail really conservative on the runs, because the currents were running very differently from one side to the other. It is a really difficult place to sail and do well at the same time, he explains.

Christopher Rast is a bit surprised over today's great result.

- We had a really good day today, but the level in the fleet is extremely high and the number of competitors too, so a simple mistake can cost you a lot of points on the board. Therefore, we are probably not taking too many chances the next days. But like all sailors know - tomorrow is a new day, and we have to fight for every point like everyone else.

The forecast for Friday is not too bad, but the wind will begin to weaken around noon and drop to nothing by the end of the day. Everybody's hoping for more races, but there is not much hope in the forecast to complete racing on Saturday and Sunday.

So, Christopher Rast's exceptional day could be the one that gave him and his team the gold if the wind doesn't cooperate the last three days of the regatta. They are for sure now the team to beat with a 20 point lead over Andrea Racchelli (ITA) and 23 points to Bora Gulari (USA) who both have proved their boat speed is compatible with Rast - but they make more mistakes.

Crash, boom, bang!
While Rast was showboating in the front of the fleet, a crash in the pack was the great attention-getter at the end of the day. Norwegian skipper Carl Erik Cullmann wasn't so cool after he and his crew were T-boned at the top mark in the first.

The impact was big, their boat was moved half a boat length to windward, and it resulted in a whole in the boat 50 by 50 centimetres. The team had to retire and have filed for permission to use another hull for the remaining races.

Results after nine races:
1. Christopher Rast, SUI, 47 point
2. Andrea Racchelli, ITA, 67 point
3. Bora Gulari, USA, 70 point
4. Riccardo Simoneschi, ITA, 100 point
5. Carveth Geoff, GBR, 104 point
6. Kristoffer Spone, NOR, 126 point
7. Michael Hestbæk, Vallensbæk, DEN, 129 point
16. Kim Christensen, Egå, DEN, 184 point
19. Kris Houmann, Frederikshavn, DEN, 196 point
24. Marc Wain Pedersen, DEN, 219 point
26. Allan Hansen, DEN, 224 point
29. Peter Havn, DEN, 259 point
30. Jesper Bendix, Strib, DEN, 270 point