New Zealanders Sebastian Menzies and George Lee Rush maintain the lead in the 49er class and the French team of Titouan Petard and Thea Lubac are the leaders in the Nacra 17
Vilagarcía de Arousa (Galicia, Spain), 18 July 2024
It has been a long day on the waters of the Arousa estuary, where the 49er, 49er FX and Nacra 17 Junior World Championships started on Wednesday. It took a long time until the wind appeared and although the start of the races was scheduled for 11h00 it was only some three hours later when the Race Committee were able to give the first warning signal with a light SW breeze which proved quite unstable for a lot of the time.
The blue and yellow 49er fleets were first to sail, completing two races during which New Zealand’s Sebastian Menzies and George Lee Rush managed to maintain their lead after scoring 2-8, the eighth becoming their discard.
Menzies and Lee Rush have now a four-point lead over second placed Richard Schultheis and Youenn Bertin from Malta, who were third yesterday. The Dutch pair Wiebrand de Vos and Stijn Gast, who have only been sailing together for two weeks and are already showing a great performance, with a first and a third today to move up to third.
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‘Today has been a day where you have to keep your eyes out of the boat all the time because there is so much going on,’ said de Vos. ‘In the first race we got to the first and second mark in fifth position, but we saw that there was no pressure on the left side of the course and there was a big shift to the left as well, so we went on the right side. We rounded the next mark of the course in first position and we managed to hold on until the end,’ he added.
On the race course off Rianxo, the Nacra 17 fleet sailed just one race, which was once again dominated by France. Thomas Prousty and Eloise Clabon won the race and they are now in second place tied on points with Titouan Petard and Thea Lubac, who became the new leaders after finishing in third place this afternoon. Clément Martineau and Adélie Bertin are in third place.
At 20h00 CEST, the 49er FX class was still racing the third and final race of the day.
With the results of the first two races of the day, the Spanish pair formed by Stella Enríquez and Marta Cardona (24-15) are provisionally in third place in the general rankings. Ahead, the Germans Katharina Schwachhofer and Elena Stoltze are the new leaders, while the Italians Sofia Giunchiglia and Giulia Schio are in second position.
Tomorrow Friday, will be the third day of competition. Racing will start at 11h00 CEST.
The 49er, 49er FX and Nacra 17 Junior World Championship is organised by the Real FederaciónGalega de Vela (Royal Galician Sailing Federation) with the sponsorship of the Diputación de Pontevedra (County Council of Pontevedra), the Xunta de Galicia and the Concello de Vilagarcía de Arousa (City Council of Vilagarcía) with the support of the Port Authority and other brands collaborating in the event.
