RS Feva Worlds - Gold fleet closely bunched after Day 3

by Golly Tucker on 28 Jul 2016 Beautiful day in Santander for the 2016 PA Consulting and Allen RS Feva Worlds - perfect for sitting on the beach but wind was a premium commodity. Teams were focused, keen and eager but had to deal with the tough waiting for sufficient stable breeze to go racing.

To be fair most dealt with it very well. By mid-afternoon the breeze stabilised sufficiently at around six knots for the fleet to make waves. Patience, smooth manoeuvres and not too many of them paid dividends – that and going the right way. The leaders came from the right and middle whilst those on the left were playing catch up!

Gold fleet went to the outer loop whilst silver and bronze got the inner loop. The tide played a significant issue as it pushed the approaching starboard tackers onto the mark. So any port tackers trying to nip in quickly at the mark in the big swell got a free 360 for hitting it. There were 360’s going on all over in the tricky conditions. Someone also fed the silver fleet some go-faster pills as they ended up intertwined with the gold coming in. Bronze managed a general recall and some last moment postponements for a variety of reasons. So only one race was possible.

In the Gold fleet Freddie Peters/Louis Johnson staged an amazing recovery to take second and the overall lead. William Pank/Finlay Dickinson were third and second overall with Jack Lewis/Lucas Marshall in tenth and third overall. Kiwis Eli Leifting/Rose Dickson remain right in the hunt as do Italians Mattia Zinetti/Davide Carbonelli. The truth of the matter is that there were a lot of big climbers but that also means there were a lot who might just have already used their discard.

In Silver Ellie Driver/Rachael Cross remain in the lead but only five pts separate the top six. The Argentinian Soldano family are second with Augustin Clot/Adam Joseph Pheasant from Hong Kong in third. The top 10 are also graced by Italians, Dutch and Czechs!

Bronze fleet saw a remarkable Maltese one - two until it was realised that one of them was Black flagged. So Megan Ferry/Emilie Gregory took the win and are 10th. Leaders overnight are Patrick/Connor Whelan from Italians Carnelli Riccardo/Dalphino Sofia and Aussies Sylvie/Rohan Stannage. The latter are the amazing tie break winners amongst no less than four boats on the same pts!