Day Four in the beautiful Azores and we finally got wind and some racing! Ben van der Steen from the Netherlands came out on top at the end of the day with Italian Matteo Iachino in second and Israeli Dagan Arnon in third – EDIT – a close call as subsequent video review has put German Vincent Langer in third place. Delphine Cousin heads the ladies leaderboard.[more]
After the previous “will it, won’t it” day when the winds were just not that good enough for official competition, the ever hopeful race crew made a few changes to the course in anticipation of a good day and the ladies were scheduled to start first.
It was a long morning watching the gusts coming through but the sun was shining on the competition and eventually the announcement from the Race Officer everyone was waiting for: “winds are 15 to 30 knots and the conditions are beautiful for some racing!”
The action was finally on – fast and furious heats were fired off. The wind gods were keeping everyone on their toes, competitors were on a range of 7.0 to 8.5 sails. Just occasionally the wind dropped – heat 11 was abandoned due to lack of wind at the start – but these tricky shifty winds made for exciting racing for competitors and spectators alike.
Watch the Gold Final courtesy of ContinentSeven
Great Action Pictures from Eric Bellande on Day Four give a flavour of the excitement.
As we head into the final day of racing, everyone is praying for wind!
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Event YouTube channel
Photos by Eric Bellande
DAY THREE –
Race Officials went out by boat towards Porto Martins before the 8am scheduled meeting for the riders on another early Azorean morning here on the 3rd event day.
Porto Martins Wind measurements on the outside 9 to 14 knots
Porto Martins Wind measurements on the inside 5 to 11 knots
The boat and the race officials returns to Praia da Vitoria while some competitors were excitedly waiting for the news hoping to finally get ready for some racing.
The decision was announced at 8am; Too much of a risk to transport all 57 competitors and an amount of approx more than 100 board bags to the proposed location so, a few sails had to be re-rigged and competitors were put on standby mode throughout the day until conditions became suitable for an official race.
After Lunch time a few competitors made use of the waiting period to test their equipment in the light and gusty conditions on the course area, while the water crew constantly measured the wind conditions on several locations.
The predicted winds failed to show up this afternoon and the event has been called off for today. Tomorrow’s forecast looks very …. oh well let’s just wait and see.
