Access Class European Championships - Light conditions on Day 1
by Michalis Pateniotis on 10 May 2013
Access Class European Championships 2013 sailability.ch
Access Class European Championships - The light conditions continued on the first racing day in Lake Constance. Only the one person classes could sail their first races in the morning. Due to the lack of wind, racing for the two person classes, were postponed for tomorrow.
The Liberty fleet were up on the race track first with Gérard Eychenne taking the lead from early on in the race and leading over Cristina RUBKE from the USA. Eychenne held tight onto his lead, not making an error, to claim a motivating opening win. Holland’s Wilma Van Den Broek overtook the American Rubke to finish second, with RUBKE in third. In the 303 one person class, Hungary’s Zoltan Pegan, the 2010 World Champion, led the race from early on and clearly demonstrated his superiority in the fleet by securing a safe lead and sailed cleverly and with smart tactics to easily take the win. Damien PEYSSON finished second in the race followed by Gilles Guyon close behind - no doubt these two French skippers will have some fierce battles throughout the series.
Immediately after, the wind dropped to zero and there was no other choice for the race committee than to postpone racing, and send the sailors ashore to wait for the breeze. On a positive note, the forecast is for more breeze over the coming days.
The breeze finally built up to 5-7 knots and the skud18 and access 303 two person fleets went out to the race course – but only for the wind to disappear, forcing racing to be abandoned for the day. Stay tuned for more wind and more racing action tomorrow!
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