It was an overcast sky that greeted the sailors as they arrived at the Yacht Club de Cannes yesterday morning, so no hope of a sea breeze. However, at around 1pm quite a strong breeze surprised many of us who even elected to change Genoa’s, from light/Medium to Heavy. Alas, as all 53 boats enthusiastically made their way out onto the race course in the West Bay, the wind died away to nothing… So patience was the name of the game..
In the end our experienced PRO Philippe Faure managed to get the 4th race of the series away in an unstable wind of around 200 degrees, at the second attempt under a Black Flag. The majority of the fleet tacked immediately and chose the right hand side of the beat, whilst a few of us elected to head out towards the open sea and hope for more pressure…. RUS 98 “Zenith”, looked to have a good advantage as they came in with speed from the left hand side, but also GER 1123 “Pow Wow” looked good from the right! Yes it was one of those days… Lots of shift’s, lots of place changes and a few costly Black Flags, one in particular was the overnight leader ITA 56, who just put their bow over in the final second… a tough call but with two more races planned for today, a discard will apply.
Finally after various course changes to compensate for the ever changing wind, the full course 3 was completed and it was GER 1150 “AIGH” who took the winning gun, helmed by Ingo Kohn, crewed by Mario Wagner and Stefan Waack. In 2nd place was GER 1151 “Puck IV” helmed by Philip Dohse, crewed by Christian Moeller and Volker Kramer. Then in 3rd place and now the overall leaders were GER 1125 “Dragoni Holly” Stephan Link, Frank Butzmann and Michi Lip. After the race Michi told me “At the final beat we were lucky and finished 3rd, lets wait and see for the discard today!” Yes my friend lets see what the final day brings !!
Higher, Faster, Longer…………. Stavros.
Today in Cannes, at the club waiting for wind…. The Final Day of the Grand Prix !!
