Ciudad de Santander Trophy - Leaders remain on day 4

by Helena de la Gándara on 13 Sep 2013 At the Ciudad de Santander Trophy, a late start of the wind, made all fleets wait in port until it decided to appear remaining a five knot speed, building up to a comfortable 12 knots and a direction shifting from 330 to around 340. The spectacular scenery of today, attracted many followers interested in watching the races, together with the vast public passing by the Oceanographic museum and the walk way round Puerto Chico.

Alfa area:

Finn: This class was competing on their own, and first to classify the New Zealander Josh junior with six points, followed by the Spaniard Alejandro Muscat with 14 points on the score and in third place the Russian Terpigorev Egor with 14 points.

Bravo racing area:

Laser: The laser had their first experience in the Test Event-Ciudad de Santander Trophy. With a fleet of 63 boats, 43 in standard and 23 in Radial it is the most numerous class in the event. In Standard class with two races, the British Martins Evans with one point, followed by the Estonian Kaarel Kruusmägi with another point and the Australian Ashley Brunning with two points to score.

In Radial, with only one race, the also British Alison Young with one point, followed by the Maria Daniela Rodriguez from Ecuador with two points and in third position Pinar Kaynar form Turkey.

Charlie area:

470 Men and Women: With a number of 31 for men and 18 for women, the class is also well represented in this event. The situation of the area was near to the isle of Santa Marina. The English team with Luke Patience and Joe Glanfield are keepin in good form remaining still leaders with 23 points. The Japanese team has climbed one position and now is in second position. The tandem Kazuto Doi and Kimihiko Imamura have 26 points. In third position the French team Pierre Leboucher and Nicolas Leberre with 42 points.

In women the clear dominators are the Australian team Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Katarzyna with seven points. The second positin has changed and is now for the British team Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark with 17 points just one point less that their team mates Sophie Wegelin and Eilidh McIntyre with 18 points.

Delta area:

Nacra and RS: X

Both classes have raced together, with spectacular scenery of speed together. For the Nacra class, the leaders are the British team Ben Saxton and Hannah Diamond with 10 points. In second place the Autrian team Thomas Zajac and Tanja Chiara with 10 points and in the third place the also British team Rupert White and Nicola Boniface with 16 points.

As for the boards, the clear dominator for the time being is Dorian Van Rijsselberghe with nine points in second place the French Julien Bontemps with 10 points and third place Nick Dempsey with 22 points.

In RS:X for women, Charline Picon is first with eight points, followed by Maayan Davidovich from Israel with 13 points and in third is Bryony Shaw with 17 points.

Foxtrot area:

49er: Beeing the last of the fleet to start, they were creating spectacular scenery in the bay of Santander just in front of the construction of the infrastructure which is being built for the 2014 event. The Spaniard are the dominators with Diego Botin and Pablo Turrado with nine points.In second place are the Austrians Benjamin Bildstein and David Hussll with 12 points and the American team Frederick Strammer and Zachary Brown in third place with 14 points.

Juan Ignacio Maegli (GUA): 'I’m trying to learn as much as I can about the conditions and the venue. Next year is going to be a key event for me. The way funding works in Guatemala means as soon as you’re qualified to the Olympic Games you get a lot more funding. It’s going to be really important to qualify next year, especially with it being two years before the Olympic Games'.

'I haven’t been sailing much but the big swell and light winds make it very complicated so there’s a lot to focus on but normally I like these conditions.'

'Everybody’s coming from the Europeans which was a pretty big event so I think people are taking this a bit easier. It’s a bit mellow but everyone is learning a lot from racing and it’s interesting to learn whilst racing.'

Bryony Shaw (GBR):'It was hard work out there. You had to keep working and keep the momentum going. Having a good lead in the first race, I had an Israeli girl breathing down my neck but managed to hold her off and then I had a really good match race up the last beat of the second race with the French girl.

'It was good to hold both of those girls off who are very, very good in that kind of wind.

'It is very similar to Rio, having been out there this summer, you really do need to get a handle on the current out there. It’s quite tricky, and also the swells – you can get some big rolling swells coming through even through the harbour entrance, so it’s a good place to practice Santander 2014