After a long day of waiting the Nacra17 sailors were very keen this morning to start racing. Around 12.00 the wind was enough to go out and Yellow Fleet left the beach. They could race two good races. Around 15.00 the Blue Fleet could start their first race. But after this 1st race they had to wait a long time on the water because of windshifts and windspeed up and downs. For both sailors and Race Committee these are very difficult days all the more knowing that during last training months the training conditions were very beautiful.
Reigning World Champions Billy Besson and Marie Riou won both races in the Yellow Fleet. They are very happy with these results of this first day: “During the races of our fleet the conditions were very good. We are happy with this result, but we have still a lot of races to go.”
The Dutch team Mandy Mulder and Coen de Koning are very happy with their results of this day. “With a 2nd and 7th place it’s a good start of this championship. We are happy to be in 2nd position after 2 races and look forward for coming days.”
The Italian team Lorenzo Bressani & Micol Giovanni finished 3rd and 8th in the Yellow Fleet races. They started sailing the Nacra17 this year and trained during last month a lot in Santander. Lorenzo is a professional sailor who won in 2010 and 2011 Melges 24 and Melges 32 World Championships and Micol sailed 470. Especially about their second race they are very happy because they had a bad start and came back from behind to the 8th position: “Coming from behind to 8th gives us a lot of self-confidence. This means we have the speed and power to sail in front of the fleet. Our goal is to be in the Gold Fleet, but this start of the event makes us very happy. “
Spanish team Iker Martinez and Tara Pacheco decided to stop racing and have packed their boat to go home. Tara had a surgery a few weeks ago and is still recovering. During the first race the team noticed that they were not able to sail 100%. Iker “We want to go for 100% and that’s not possible at this moment. So we decided to stop now and go home and give Tara the time to recover fully.”
In the Blue Fleet the Swiss team Matias Buhler and Nathalie Brugger won the first race and ended up for GBR team Ben Saxton & Hannah Diamond. Matias and Nathalie ”We did a very good first race and are very happy with this result. Unfortunately we didn’t race any more. But the Race Committee did all they could do in these difficult weather conditions with shifty wind and up and downs. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.“
By Edwin Lodder, Nacra17 Class Manager
