PWA Catalunya World Cup - Waiting game continues on day 4

by Chris Yates on 31 May 2014 The fourth day of the PWA Catalunya World Cup proved to be almost a repeat of yesterday, with the wind teasing the competitors for much of the day. After another long day on hold the competition has become a battle of mental strength. With just two days to go before the end of the event there is still everything to play for, but who will be best prepared for when the wind returns?

In between the patches of gusting wind we caught up with Austrian Marco Lang (Fanatic / North):

PWA: How did your winter training go last year and where were you?

ML: 'I was on Tenerife, to practice a bit more my racing skills and so I took part in the Pro X Training with Sparky (Mark Hosegood).

PWA: How was the training for you and do you feel you improved?

ML: 'It helped me already a lot, because everybody knows that I had a lot of problems with my starts last year. For example in Turkey I went over the line early three times in a row. So that for me was definitely the biggest improvement.'

PWA: Recently you also broke the speed record for Lake Neusiedl? How were the conditions and what kit were you on?

ML: 'Yeah that´s right 71.64 km/h. For a choppy lake I think I did pretty ok! It was quite choppy and 35 knots. For the record I was on the 90 Falcon and 6.3m Warp.'

PWA: In the first race you made the quarterfinals were you pleased with how you sailed and what happened at in your heat?

ML: 'Yeah, I was a bit stoked, first PWA race this year and straight into the quarterfinal. In the second round I was a bit unlucky. I had a solid start and good board speed, I enter the first mark in second place, but then I had problems getting my foot out of the straps and so everyone behind could overtake me.'

PWA: You are also involved in the testing for North and Fanatic - Do you enjoy the testing role and what's involved?

ML: 'Since last year I am involved in the development for North and Fanatic. It’s a lot of fun and for me personally it is also a big positive because I can learn a lot about the equipment. The most important thing in racing is fine-tuning! This Winter I was in Maui for one month to help with the development of the production sails for 2015.'

PWA: Finally, what is your aim for the rest of the season?

ML: 'My main goal for this season is to compete on the whole PWA Slalom World Tour and to do as well as I possibly can!'

PWA: Thanks Marco, good luck for the rest of the event.

Earlier in the day a few of the sailors were tempted out on to the water to chase the gusts. Unfortunately the wind never properly filled in and the sailors were released at 4:30pm.

The forecast for tomorrow indicates another prediction for the Tramontana in the morning, so with this in mind the skippers’ meeting has been called for 8:30am and the action commencing from 9am if conditions allow. Hopefully the forecast for tomorrow comes true, after the previous two days where the forecast has failed to PWA World Tour