Nacra 17 Worlds - Gusts up to 38 knots and heavy rain

by Dan Ibsen & Tine Vinther Poulsen on 9 Jul 2015 Nacra 17 Worlds - The Gold Fleet got ready to venture out for a day of three races with a scheduled first start at 1100 hours while the Silver Fleet sailors prepared for their three races scheduled to go off at 1400 hours.

It wasn't long before it was clear to both sailors and people on land that the stormy Autumn-like weather had other plans for the gold fleet sailors. After an hour of failed attempts to signal the first start the races were postponed indefinitely.

Frustrated and wind-swept the sailors rolled ashore and all the sailors could do was watch the weather worsen while the signaling flags hoisted by the race management repeatedly postponed the races.

Silver Fleet Races Cancelled
When change finally occurred late afternoon had arrived and the consequences of the dramatic weather was inescapable; the scheduled Silver Fleet races were cancelled entirely, leaving the Gold Fleet sailors with the delicate hope of still seeing through their share of the competition.

Thus the Silver Fleet remains unaltered after fourth day of the championship.

The U.S. duo Steph Hudson and Evan Aras are still in the lead followed by the aspiring young Danish team Ida Svensson and Rasmus Rosengren and the New Zealand team Olivia Mackay and Micah Wilkinson.

Belgian Carolijn Brouwer and Morgan Good are also to be found among the Silver Fleet sailors at the time of writing, as are teams like Russian Maxim Semenov/Alina Shchetinkina, U.S. Mark Mendelblatt/Carolina Mendelblatt and Japanese Hiroki Goto/Wakako Tabata.

Gold Fleet’s Late Night Battle
At 1800 hours the Gold Fleet received the redeeming message to get ready for racing and at 1900 hours in the evening on day four the first of three races were jump-started.

The results of today’s races proved as unpredictable as the Danish summer weather as the Gold Fleet teams shuffled rankings already from the first race.

The French world champions ended up 23, 1 and 1 while yesterday’s no. 15, the Dutch team Mandy Mulder/Coen De Koning made a 1, 2 and 15.

One of the truly shooting stars at the Nacra 17 Worlds, the young German team Paul Kohlhoff and Carolina Werner, came in 8, 9 and 3. For the Germans, racing for medals at the Worlds is not their only aim as Germany – due to their accomplishments – now stands a more than fair chance of winning one of the four remaining spots for the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Another team who also stands a fair chance of conquering one of the remaining Rio 16 spots is the Aruban team Velden/Visser who came in 5, 13 and 16.

The two Danish teams in the Gold Fleet, Nørregaard/Viborg (23, 14 and 4) and Cenholt Christiansen/Lübeck (9, 5 and DNF) were struck by bad luck and injuries leaving both teams a little further down the list than before today’s race.

The Italian team Bressani/Micol had an excellent day on the water racing 4, 8 and 15. As did Australia’s Waterhouse/Darmanin with a 6, 3 and 8.

After tonight’s dramatic Gold Fleet racing the preliminary top ten looks like this:

1. Besson/Riou (FRA)
2. Waterhouse/Darmanin (AUS)
3. Kohlhoff/Werner (GER)
4. Mulder/De Koning (NED)
5. Jones/Saunders (NZL)
6. Velden/Visser (ARU)
7. Bissro/Sicouri (ITA)
8. Nørregaard/Viborg (DEN)
9. Gimson/Diamond (GBR)
10. Matinez/Casanova (ESP)

See the whole ranking of the Gold Fleet HERE!

The weather forecast for Thursday reports even worse conditions than Wednesday – hopefully the Danish weather will prove the meteorologists wrong as it has done so many times before.