34th Student Yachting World Cup at La Rochelle - Day 4
by SYWoC Press Office 21 Oct 2014 22:52 AEDT
15-22 October 2014
Little wind, flat sea, and grey sky: the sailing conditions weren't that good but nevertheless four races were run today. Italy won two races (windward/leeward race (9th race) and coastal race (11th race), Switzerland won the second race of the day (10th race) and Ireland the last one (12th race). A lot of tactics were required to make best use of the little wind.
The first race (windward/leeward race, 0,8nm) started at 4knts. A second start under black flag happened. The wind direction changed quite much, and different tactic choices were made by the crews. The course was then shortened to 0.5nm. Italy led but the French Polytechnique team was just following them. Unfortunately they lost all their advantage due to a bad manoeuvre...
England passed over many boats at the first buoy and became second behind Italy, a situation that lasted until the end of the race. France (Polytechnique) got a penalty and had to do two laps to fix it... Wales was in good position, they finished 5th behind Switzerland. Scotland came back on the podium for this race finishing 3rd.
The second race (race 10) was also a windward/leeward course. Switzerland finished first of this race, Norway second and Ireland third. England was 5th as Italy got a penalty, which allowed the English team to pass them before the finishing line. It was really close in the last group between Scotland, France (ESCE) and Japan.
The third race was a 4nm long coastal race, which was won by Italy. No peculiar comments on it.
As for the fourth race of the day, a windward/leeward race (0,7 nm), it was also shortened and finished at the windward buoy. Ireland topped the ranking for this race!
England is still leading overall, nevertheless their invincible halo has become cracked: they weren't ahead of every race as they had been since the beginning of this competition... Is there some slackening from the English crew in the air?! Italy's sailing is remarkable: they toped the ranking twice today. They stole Ireland's second place on the podium, but the Irish crew seems eager to take it back! Ireland did unequal races today and finished first of the 12th race.
After a poor first race, Norway sailed well being second of all the three last races. Can they come back on the podium? What is for sure is that they have the potential to do so! Switzerland and the USA have equal scores (5th and 6th overall): everything remains possible!
The level of this competition is outstanding and the SYWoC's organizing team congratulates every crew for their excellent sailing skills. Tomorrow more wind is expected: this will require different techniques and the ranking might change a lot!