Tornado World Championship at Yacht Club de la Grande Motte - Day 2

Tornado World Championship - Day 2 © Nikos Pantis

After a first day shortened in the water due to the administrative decision to secure the area for the aircraft's Patrouille de France performance in La Grande Motte sky, the 2018 Tornado World Championship was back at the end of the afternoon.

After a spectacular show the night continued on shore with a delicious Paëlla dinner, cooked by the race Committee officers and served on the terrace of the YCGM during the sunset.

Second day was a brand new day with new conditions. The sky was blue again with a strong wind coming from the north in the morning. However, during the skipper's briefing, which took place at 11:00 am, the principal race officer said it was urgent to wait, according to his weather forecast. The south thermic breeze started to blow earlier than the days before, but gradually slowed down. Being informed of the postponed time, all the competitors were waiting ashore. They were called on the water at 2:30 pm and the start was given at 3:05 pm with 12 knots of wind.

All 24 boats had a superb start. Very soon AUS 3 took the lead, with GRE 1 at the second place. After 2 laps, AUS 3 had a two minutes lead over GRE 1. Despite a very good choice with a sailing on starboard side of the beat of the third lap, GRE 1 could not gained enough distance and AUS 3 won with only a 40 meters lead. Astonished by their performance, FRA 2 took a superb third place, which was a great surprise for the French group.

During the second race of the day, the wind has lightly shifted to south east and blew stronger, about 12 to 15 knots. It was another superb start for the fleet with almost all the boats side by side very close to the line at the starting signal. The course was longer with 1,3 NM between the start and mark one. At the end of the first lap, GRE 1 rounded the starboard mark of the leeward gate leaving AUS 3 30 meters back.

During the second downwind leg, the wind decreased to 10 - 13 knots. It was more difficult for the boats to stay surfing on one hull under spinnaker. GRE 1 was much more faster than the others, and passed the leeward gate 300 meters ahead of FRA 2.

With a change of wind on the left, the course changed and again GRE 1 was the fastest, crossing the finishing line two minutes ahead of FRA 2. AUS 3 tried its best, but could never pass FRA 2 and finished 10 meters behind.

A great surprise for the day came from GER 11 in the Mixed category. Now, the youths of Estella Jentsch (16) and Daniel Brown (18) stand first in the Mixed category after scoring two fourth places yesterday.