2 Wins for “Pow Wow” in Cascais…

GER 1123 “Pow Wow” leads the 18 boat fleet in the 4th Cascais Winter Series..

It was a great day of sailing in Cascais with a brisk northerly wind and a sunny blue sky, that saw Michael Zankel in GER 1123 “Pow Wow” have back to back victories on the first day of racing down in Portugal. His crew and local professional / tactician Pedro Andrade said ” We had two great starts and held the lead all the way in race one. But in the second race there was a big right hand shift which gave 6 boats an advantage, so we had to work hard both up wind and down wind to get back.  In the end we over-took them all and finished first… Happy Team :-) ” Well done to Michael, Pedro & Phil Blinn.

Also having a good day and showing some of his World Championship “Form” was Klaus Diederichs GBR 758 “Fever” who recorded a 2nd and a 4th to finish the day in 2nd place overall. Klaus is keen to defend his World title in La Rochelle and Cascais offers an excellent opportunity for him to regain his speed and fine tune the “Fever” crew work…      

  Klaus and his team, Jamie Lea and Vicente’ Pinheiro  Melo drive Fever down the waves…

In 3rd place overall and just one point behind Klaus is SWE 385  “Still Crazy” helmed by Stefan Winberg crewed by Per Nogen and Markus Largerquist. This experienced team won the 2nd winter series back in December 2014 and are becoming very consistent in all conditions. Stefan now lives in Cascais so his local knowledge and monthly racing has helped him master the various wave formations and ever changing wind patterns.

Stefan and his team in “Stir Crazy” catching one of the many important up wind shift’s !

Club Naval de Cascais President and former European Champion Jose’ Matoso commented ” It was a great day of sailing with crisp air and a bright sky, at one point a brief hail shower created difficult shifting conditions that kept everybody on their toes. This caused lots of ups and downs in the classification throughout the races. It was good that both races started first time with clear lines! ”  Thank you Jose’ and great that the weather was kind.

Clear line starts in Cascais, as the fleet get away both times, so no recall’s or delays….

Tomorrow will see three more races as the forecast is excellent, so keep watching this page and I will bring you the latest results and some more superb photo’s from “our” Class Professional Ricardo Pinto..

Higher, Faster, Longer………    Stavros.