London Olympics- Preview of day 2 for Team GBR

by RYA on 30 Jul 2012 At the 2012 London Olympic Games, Ben Ainslie (Finn), the Star boys, Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson and the Match Race trio of Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor all got their 2012 campaigns underway on day one of the regatta, but what is in store for them on day two?

*all times below are scheduled start times

With all eyes on whether Ben Ainslie can become the most successful sailing Olympian of all time at this Games it seems fitting that the Finn class gets proceedings underway at 12pm on the Nothe course.

Normally the target time for a Finn race is one hour, but for all classes the target time has been lowered slightly on the Nothe course – which is the spectator course – so Ben’s race one has a target time of 45 – 60 minutes.

For his second race of the day Ben switches to the Weymouth Bay West course, with that race scheduled to get underway at 1.40pm.

By his own admission, Ben’s opening days haven’t always gone entirely to plan, something he will be looking to try to avoid this time around.

The memories of Star (two-man keelboat) pair of Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson winning their emotional gold together in Beijing will live long in the memory but the lifelong best mates are keen to try to replicate those images on home waters this time around.

Both of the two scheduled Star races today are set to take place on the Weymouth Bay West course, starting at 1.30pm and 2.50pm. The target time for each race is 60-75 minutes.

The Brits get the Women’s Match Racing competition – the longest event of the whole Olympic Regatta – underway on the Nothe course at 1.30pm.

In race one, they will be going head-to-head against the Denmark trio of Lotte Pedersen, Susanne Boidin and Tina Gramkov.

Race two is scheduled to get away at 3.30pm on the same course, against the Spanish team of Tamara Echegoyen Dominguez, Sofia Toro Prieto Puga and Angela Pumariega Menendez.

After a week of next to no breeze in Weymouth, the wind is expected to get up for racing today.

From an anticipated 10-12 knots at the start of racing the breeze is expected to build to 16-18 knots this afternoon, with some strong gusts and shifty conditions across Weymouth Bay. The wind is expected to come from a West / South-Westerly direction, with broken sunshine and a few showers British Sailing Team website