The Yacht Club de Cannes.. (from the air) hosts the Coupe d’Hiver this weekend, with 23 boats enjoying loads of sunshine, whilst the rest of Europe endure strong winds and flooding!
Yes my friends, 3 races have been sailed to date with more expected today, in light shifting conditions, which have seen 3 different winners…. In race 1 GBR 787 “Excite” owned and helmed by newcomer Tom Vernow (from the Isle of Wight), made the race look easy as he led from start to finish having made a huge gain on the right hand side of the first beat. With Petticrow’s owner Tim Tavinor calling the tactics and fellow Isle of Wight expert Neil Payne as crew, Tom must be very happy to be already at the front of the fleet, what a wonderful start….
In race 2 RUS 98 “Zenith” made an excellent start from the pin end and this enabled owner and helm Igor Goikhberg to keep his beautiful teak decked Petticrow’s in clear air and sail out to more pressure on the left. His top tactician Dmitry Berezkin kept a cool head and made the most of their advantage to take the win as the wind gradually died away.
Then yesterday, just 1 race could be completed in extremely light conditions. This race was won by our Vice Chairman Vassily Senatorov helming RUS 34 “Even Better” who chose as nice lane into the windward mark and held his nerve down a very tricky run as patches of wind led to many place changes by the bottom gate. With a change of course and just a short final upwind to go, Vassily’s tactician Igor Ivashintsov made a good call to head for the shore and came out with pressure to take the winning gun.
Overall leader after 3 races is FIN 63 helmed by Lauri Retchardt who has been very consistent and is on 17pts counting all three races. Behind Lauri is another Lawrie, that one being Lawrie Smith GBR 785 who is trying out his brand new Petticrow’s for the first time.
We all wait ashore now for the wind to fill in to complete the regatta, more news to follow!
Higher, Faster, Longer………….. Stavros. GBR 771.