The sun shone in a cloudless sky as the 21 boat fleet waited patiently for the familiar North Westerly to fill in 3 miles off the shore of Cascais in the deep blue Atlantic Sea… When the races finally got underway at around 3.00pm it was again “Fever” GBR 758 Klaus Diederichs who revelled in these fantastic winter sailing conditions. However, with the first beat at just over 1 mile and a fleet with a very high sailing standard, such as this, many boats arrived together at the top mark from both the right and left hand side of the course. RUS 27 Anatoly Loginov and GER 10 Vincent Hoesch were two such boats and had a great day’s sailing with each recording a 2nd and 3rd place in the two races. So although Klaus deservedly took his third race win he could start to feel both pre regatta favourites closing in….
In the second race (after an OCS in first race) HUN 57 helmed by Ferenc Kis-Szolgyemi showed great speed and excellent team-work to round the top mark with a clear lead and despite Hoesch attacking hard on the second beat, HUN 57 took the race win as the course finished on the second downwind leg. Unfortunately there was no time for a third race as it took a good 40 minutes to sail back into the Marina and pick-up one of the sheltered swing moorings that are overlooked by this magnificent Clube Naval de Cascais. The traditional “Happy Hour” was then enjoyed by all as the results were closely studied…..
Mathematically, with two more races planned for today, anyone of the top 5 boats can still win. But Diederichs with his three “Bullets” can now discard his 12th place in race four and sits comfortably at the top of the leader-board on 3pts… With a very light wind forecast for today, it would not surprise me to see Klaus and his Professional Team head off to Church this morning to ask the Wind God’s to stay at home today ……. 🙂
Top 5 are: GBR 758 Diederichs 3pts. GER 10 Hoesch 9pts. POR 55 Matoso 11pts. RUS 27 Loginov 12pts. GBR 767 Payne 13pts……
Higher, Faster, Longer………… Stavros. (GBR 767).