AP is down for a difficult first day at Cagliari
Jim Saltonstall (GBR), Cristabella’s esteemed coach explains his take on the weather this morning: “It will be a tricky day today.
We have a high pressure area which has associated with it this cloud coming up from the SW and pushing towards the W. So that is why we have the SE gradient this morning. That is why we have these two bands of rain. One has pushed through this morning and there is another one behind it. So we could see a time frame of the breeze actually collapsing and wanting to back round to the NE.
It will be very difficult for the race committee.
But once that has cleared the breeze may want to settle down in the SE around 140 degrees, around mid afternoon. It is one of those scenarios where it could be a Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck day, or if it does push through late afternoon we might see something of the order of eight or ten knots from the SE.”
Race 1
Bribon leads from the start and sails a textbook race in 8 to 10knots of breeze.
Quantum and ETNZ have a bit of a private battle halfway up the frst beat, which does not help either of them.
The victory of the first race in Cagliari goes to Bribón!
A couple of boatlengths behind crosses Matador, Artemis, Cristabella, Synergy, TeamOrigin, Audi A1, ETNZ…
Race 2
Amazing, talk about from hero to zero or vice versa.
Bribon, Cristabella and Matador make up the back of the fleet and ETNZ, Quantum and Luna Rossa show up at the front.
Star of Race 2 however is AudiAOne, Jochen Schümann & Co showing how to control once up front.
Now see how this order gets through the final leg.
The finish is: AudiAOne, ETNZ, Quantum, TeamOrigin, Synergy, Artemis, Luna Rossa, Matador, Bribon, Cristabella.
So after 2 races AudiAOne leads with 6 points, Artemis 2nd with 9 and Bribon, ETNZ and Matador each with 10 points.
Race 3
ETNZ hits the line well at the pin end whereas Matador does so at the committee boat.
AudiAOne again with the early leaders, will they keep their 1st overall?
Lightish, shifty and choppy, not easy.
Great fight for first between ETNZ and Matador, Synergy good third, good fight for 4th between AudiAOne and Cristabella.
Looks like AudiAOne might not hang on to their event lead.
Breeze picks up, so does the chop. Hobbyhorsing, some like it…
TeamOrigin good second beat passed Cristabella and on Audi’s stern.
Matador close to ETNZ, battle for 1st in final leg.
But Kiwi’s enjoy increased pressure, now pulling away, this bird flies.
TeamOrigin take Audi’s scalp for 4th, AudiAOne 5th.
ETNZ and AudiAOne share event lead after Day One, 11 points.
Matador close 3rd, 12 points. Synergy good 4th, 14 points.
TeamOrigin 15 points, not far behind.
Great day of racing with AudiAOne surprisingly constant with 5, 1 and 5.
