IOM Europeans at Sailing Club of Rijeka, Cres, Croatia - Day 1
by Icarus Sailing Media 19 Nov 2012 23:22 PST
17-24 November 2012
First day finds Britain’s Gibson on top at the IOM Europeans 2012
The skies cleared this morning here in Cres, Croatia and the 74 sailors competing prepared their boats from early on, since the first start was scheduled at 9am. A tiring day awaited them with 15 races scheduled for the 5 heats that the fleet was divided. First to start was Heat E with the top four boats advancing in Heat A for the second race and the next two in Heat B. The same procedure would follow for the other four Heats in order for the first round to be completed.
The first races took place at the course that was located in front of the venue, with the wind being extremely light, forcing that way the race committee to cancel some races several times after they had started. Nonetheless, 3 heats were completed with the favourites qualifying to the Heat A.
Then the race committee decided to move the course area to the northern side of the venue where the wind was more stable and stronger. Now the competitors were more careful since wind gusts often reached 15 knots making life harder for many of them.
After that the second race for Heat E started and now the top 3 athletes advanced in Heat D. Then the top 3 of Heat D would qualify for Heat C and so on until the top 3 of Heat B advance in Heat A and race with the best of this Championship. That way the order of finish in Heat A would score as points and the overall ranking would form.
At the end it was Britain’s Brad Gibson who scored two bullets and is now leading the fleet. In second place is Alexis Carre from France just one point in front of Graham Elliott from the UK.
Tomorrow the heavy schedule continues with another 15 races scheduled plus the ones missed today. So it is a day not to be missed.
Full results can be found here.