French Nacra Squad Making Strides
Paris, and the sailing in Marseilles, will be here before we know it. For three French Nacra 17 teams, they are working cooperatively on the med coast, sharing time between Marseilles and La Grand Motte, and working against time to move into the elite group as quickly as possible.
In the eighth race, Titouan Petard with Lou Berthomieu (FRA) managed to finish third, while Margaux Billy with Leo Maurin (FRA), managed to win. In this shiftiest of the races they got good starts and had enough speed to manage the fleet after they got into the lead.
The squad is made up from a group or former 420 sailors, laser sailors, and Nacra 15 sailors. In the next 24 months we shall see if they can continue up the rankings.
Moving up the fleet today were Ida Svensson with Marcus Dackhammer (SWE) who continued their consistent form with a 5, 4, 5. Ida commented at being mentally fatigue after long days on the water under the hot sun. Perhaps a trip down the youtube rabbithole overnight will refresh her to continue the battle on day four.
John Gimson with Anna Burnet (GBR) continue to lead Gianluigi Ugolino with Alice Cialfi (ITA).
Maltese Sisters Pass Endurance Test Over Four Races
Antonia and Victoria Schulteis (MLT) met their toughest test yet as young leaders of the 2021 European Championship. With four races on the day, and constant shifts, oscillations, puffs, and some weed, along with 37 competitors, there was plenty of pitfalls they might have met. At only 20 and 18 years old respectively, they were remarkably calm and balanced on reflection of another day in the yellow jerseys.
Their third race of the day was a 20th, which they are keeping, but with three other top 10 finishes they remain clear atop the table and poised to continue forward.
Moving up the ranking were Enia Nincevic with Mihaela Vitturi (CRO) scoring a win and two thirds along with an 11th to start the day. Mihaela commented that once the wind built up a bit stronger, they felt at their best. Their win came from a mid-line start, they took advantage of a sag to start at full speed and charged over to the left making the race win relatively easily. They sit in second now and are thirteen points off the lead.
Also scoring well on the day are a training partner of the Croatians, Jana Germani with Giorgia Bertuzzi (ITA). Germani and Bertuzzi also had three top tens on the day. The two teams train together fairly often on Lake Garda and manage to communicate through a mix of English, Italian, and Croatian. Germani commented, I can speak Slovenian, so with Croatian being almost the same we figure it out. For those counting, that’s four languages contributing to the communication between two boats! Lara Granier with Amilie Riou (FRA) also won a race on the day and moved into third overall despite being black flagged from the final race of the day.
Fischer / Graff (GER) win the day, Stanuil / Sztorch (POL) take pair of bullets into third.
Lukasz/Pawel (POL) continue to put in race scores as consistent as the wind has been here in Thessaloniki. Each day, the wind rolls in at 1:30, and each day the veteran Polish pair head out the course and score all top 10’s. That’s nine races in a row without a double digit finish in 30 boat split fleets. With racing heading into Gold fleet, their challenge will be to keep up that unblemished record.
Plenty of teams other teams put up low scores on the day to move into contention and secure gold fleet places. Fischer and Graf (GER) won the day with a 2, 3, 1, and now trail the leading Poles, by a single point. Barrio and Torrado (ESP) scored a 3, 2, 2 to move up in to seventh.
Stanuil and Sztorch (POL) started the day by winning both races. Taking good starts, finding the pressure bands, and keeping mostly keeping to the left. The breeze was up relative to the rest of the week, and they enjoyed stretching out to full power. The third race of the day was downspeed again, with a huge shift to the right mid race and then remaining shifty throughout. Polish sailors now occupy three of the top four places overall.
Day three of qualifying also marked the split between gold and silver. The top 25 boats only remain in gold, and at the split were three teams sharing 101 points over nine races (8 counting). By virtue of a win in race 5, Valentine Muller with Moritz Fieberg (GER) held off their teammates Paul Pietzcker with Linus von Oppen (GER) and Richard Schulteis with Max Korner (MLT)
Racing continues through September 19th and will conclude with medal races. Catch the results, video highlights, photos and stories at http://nacra17.org/event/2021-european-championship/
