Day 3
- “This was my first time in the Mistral, I like strong winds, but…it got crazy!” – Roos Wind
- “It was epic, just survival conditions – and the Ilca 6 are still out there!” – Nicholas Halliday
- “You know it’s gonna hurt like a m0£%@$*%£@!#, but you’ve just got to send it.” – Anna Munch
- “It was a hell of a day.” Nicolas Goyard
- ILCA 6, Kites and iQFoil last on the water to face the full force
“Epic”, “Crazy”, “Nothing like it” and many words too colourful to include in a family press release sprang from the excited Mistral-lashed lips and sometimes stunned faces of those Olympic classes last back to the boat park. There is no sailing regatta in the world like French Olympic Week in Hyères when the Mistral blasts over 25 knots into the Bay under blue skies in brilliant sunshine.
23 April, 2025
Nacra 17 (mixed double-handed catamaran)
29 entries
Two races today
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Gianluigi Ugolini & Maria Giubilei confirmed their dominance of the field in all conditions by winning both races and have opened up a 16-point lead on the field after eight races.
Austria’s Laura Farese & Matthäus Zöchling (7, 7, 4) held on to second place and Britain’s John Gimson & Anna Burnett (2, 5, 3), winners in Palma just ahead of the Italian duo, moved into third place and just a point behind the Austrians, with the podium looking like a battle between the top five.
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Gianluigi Ugolini & Maria Giubilei (ITA)
Gianluigi Ugolini: “Two nice races. We had the chance to do two races in good conditions, not forced, you know. Happy. The second one, after the start, it built up really fast and it reached 20-25. The problem was the waves, because normally we can sail really easily in 20-25 knots, but with waves, it’s a bit tricky. I think we were able to open up big gaps (on the fleet), we had a really good strategies, so we got into first position from the start and then just let the boat go as fast as possible.”
49er (men’s and women’s double-handed skiff)
Women’s FX (38 entries)Three races today
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23 April, 2025
USA’s re-formed duo, Paris Henken & Helena Scutt moved to the top of the leaderboard with another high-scoring day in the fleet making it one the hardest to call. They finished second in the first race of the day and were then ninth and tenth in the next two.
23 April, 2025
But that was enough to displace Belgium’s Isaura Maenhaut & Anouk Geerts who finished 14, 15, 8 after a day of troubled starts saw them slip back to second overall. France’s Lara Granier and Amélie Riou (5, 6, 5) enjoyed one of the best days to jump up into third place.
23 April, 2025
USA – FXParis Henken & Helena Scutt (USA):
Helena Scutt: “We had a good day, it was super fun. That third race. really ticked up, and it was like, all right, boat handling queens here!”
Paris Henken: “Our mantra today was sail to what you see and what you have. We stayed pretty consistent. We didn’t win any race. races, but we passed boats when we could and tried not to make too many mistakes.”
Paris Henken: “At two minutes to go (before the last race), there was actually like a big hole, not much wind and maybe that was kind of like the telltale sign that something was going to change. But it maybe got up to 16, 17, 18 knots. It wasn’t crazy until like literally right when we were finishing.”
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Isaura Maenhaut & Anouk Geerts (BEL): Anouk Geerts: “It’s a super big fleet and a high scoring regatta. Everyone is a bit up and down, so it’s so hard to to say. And every day you can come away with 15 points or 50 points almost. I think every day is very important on its own.”
Isaura Maenhaut: “We enjoyed it! It felt a bit harder for us today. We struggled a little bit to come off the start, so it was about fighting back through the pack, which we managed quite well. But it was a bit hard to do our own strategy, which was a bit of unfortunate. In the third race we managed to still be in the top 10, so that was good. We just managed to all finish in decent saleable conditions, just after the finish, it really picked up. Because actually for the first race we had relatively light winds. So it was a mix of everything today.”
Men’s 49er (67 entries)
Three races today
23 April, 2025
Despite being disqualified in blue group’s second race for a premature start, Uruguay’s duo of Hernando Umpierre and Fernando Diz jumped to the top of a tightly-packed leaderboard by finishing fourth in the first race and sixth in the third. Britain’s James Grummett and Rhos Hawes, won the first race in yellow group and were then eighth and fourth to move into second place overall. Poland’s Dominik Buksak & Adam Głogowski (5, 2, 8 in yellow group) moved into third. It is anyone’s fleet still.
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