Ciudad de Santander Trophy - Great Britain and Spain dominate

by Helena de la Gándara on 14 Sep 2013 At the Test event-Cuidadde Santander Trophy, the North winds are still insisting on being the main dominator of the event, quite unusual even mentioned by the local sailors.

On the fifth day, the race committee had to postpone in port for all classes until the wind conditions were clear. At around 13:00h the flag came down for the boards and a few minutes later for the 49er.

As soon as the wind builds up to six knots of wind speed, the Laser and 470 made their appearance in the bay of Santander. It wasn’t until at around 15:00 h that the Finn class started and mid afternoon it was the Nacra 17 turn for the Foxtrot racing area, the nearest to the Doc of Gamazo, from witch was a clear view and sight of the race.

Alfa area: RS:X Men and Women and Finn.

The two categories of the RS:X started their next to last race, before the Medal race on Sunday, followed by the Finn who have finalized their participation.

In men’s the Dutch Dorian Van Rijsselberghe with 13 pints is the leader with a clear advantage. The second place is for the French Julien Bontemps with 22 points and in third place the Spaniard Iván Pastor. The leader of world ranking for the RS:X class is justifying his position with a total score of 31 points.

In the Women category for RS:X Charline Picon is marking a distance in the podium with a total of 12 points . In second place Maayan Davidovich from Israel with 22 points and in third position the also French Eugénie Ricard with a total of 24 points, close to Bryony Shaw with 27 points.

The Finn have completed their races, being Josh Junior from New Zealand with nine points in second place the Spaniard Alejandro Muscat with 18 points and in third place Terpigorev Egor with 19 points.

Bravo area: 470 Men and women

The 470 fleet also finished their round; tomorrow they will have to confront the Medal Race in the Foxtrot area.

Luke Patience and Joe Glanfield are still the leaders, with a total score of 37 points. Unfortunately for the Japanese team who where in second place, went down to the tenth position. The Finish team Joonas and Niklas Lindgren are silver with 60 points and in third position Anton Dahlberg and Frederik Bergstrom with a total of 17 points.

In women the clear dominators the Austrian team Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Katarzyna finalized with 25 points. The English team in second place Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark with 28 points and with 35 points from the same country Sophie Wegelin and Eilidith Mc Intyre in third.

Charlie area:

Laser Radial and Laser Standard, being today their second round, in Standard the British Nick Thompson with 11 points, second place Juan Ignacio Maegli from Guatemala with only one more point. In third place Jesper Stálheim with also another point more than the second, all positions very close together.

For radial, there has been a complete change in the classifications with Manami Doi from Japan in first position with nine points; second is Cagla Donertas from Turkey with 15 points and in third position from England Chloe Martin with 22 points.

Delta area: 49er

After the spectacular scene of yesterday in front of the doc of Gamazo changed to Delta area just next to the isle of Santamarina. In this category the Spaniards Diego Botin and Pablo Turrado have great chances of winning with a domination of 17 points followed by Victor Payá and Alvaro del Arco with 26 points and I nthird position from Austria Benjamin Bildstein and David Hussll with also 26 points.

Foxtrot area:

Been the Nacra the stars of the day, with only a wind speed of 10 knots, this multihull where flying around the bay.

Ben Saxton and Hannah Diamond representing the UK are still way ahead with 14 points in second place the Austrian team Thomas Zajac and Tanja Chiara with 18 points and in third place also from the UK Rupert White and Nicola Boniface with 21 points.

Benjamin Bildstein (AUT) - 49er: 'For us the plan is to get some more information the water and the wind here. We want to be prepared for next year and taking an Olympic ticket. The wind is good, sailing is really nice and we will look forward to a good event next year.

'Next year we will aim for the Olympic ticket and who goes from Austria will be decided really close to the Olympic Games if both or more teams are at the same level. It will take quite long to decide which boat will go from Austria.

'For us it’s been a big surprise that the 49er has been sailing offshore so we have big waves, big swell which are not typical conditions for the 49er because it is quite tricky and hard to handle. We know now we need to prepare for next year and know how it is with the tide and current because every day is different. We will train one more time here before Santander 2014.'

Tanja Frank (AUT) - Nacra 17: 'It’s a nice port but a difficult place to sail but it’s very nice and we have been learning a lot,'

'It was quite difficult to learn how to sail the multihull but it’s a very nice boat, very fast and big Click here for Satander 2014