Lightest Day Of The Year
With the breeze dropping under 6 knots regularly this sure was the lightest day of racing we had sofar this year.
Adrian Stead (GBR) tactician Quantum Racing (USA):
“It was very tricky out there today. There weas only two and a half hours of breeze in the whole Porto Cervo region today and we were racing up in Bomb Alley where it is quite narrow with the mountain on one side and the island on the other. We had quite a good start and it felt like the right would work. As soon as Gladiator tacked to the right we took the opportunity to get round her. The boat was going pretty well but there were certainly plenty of potholes out there to watch, as light as four knots at times and as much as seven knots. The finishing times at the end the front four boats were all within 30 seconds of each other, but the back markers were some minutes behind and so that shows just how extreme it was racing out there today.”
“We have four races in light winds so far with big winds tomorrow- we might race, we might not, but Saturday is looking very sailable, but with a very lumpy, leftover sea. There is a lot more of this regatta left and if we got out there tomorrow, we would be really pleased.”
“I think we will have a good two to three more races at this regatta, maybe even three races on Saturday so we might only be half way through this regatta. Gladiator and Paramount Park are both grandfathered boats with slightly smaller rudders and they are going well downwind, and upwind in fact, so we have been happy with how we have gone. Great work today, very pleased with the win.”
Chris Larson (USA) tactician Gladiator (GBR):
“I gave the start up a little bit, trying to be a little too fancy with too many downspeed manoeuvres, and that cost us so we had to bale out get right by taking a few sterns, it was how to get there. We found a little lane to get us there and the boat is quick in this stuff and that helped us out. Our speed helps, we were too leeward of a couple of boats and by the time we got to the windward mark it started evening out. We hit a perfect layline, we tacked 15 degrees short of layline and got a shift, 15 degrees with a puff and that got us around, it was fantastic. Nacho (Postigo, navigator) and Tony (Langley, owner-helm) both did a great job and that helped us out from my bad start.”
“It will be a different day tomorrow, we don’t have to win the race we just need to make sure we have a decent finish.”
Ross MacDonald (CAN) tactician Paramount Park Murcia (ESP):
“It was a tricky day out there with the geographical influences in the bay, and so you try not to get caught out too much there. We got off to not a great start, kind of playing second row a bit. It was quite interesting but really as everyone can see the boat goes quite well in these light conditions, you just have to hang in there. It is very close, the next few days will be interesting for sure.”