After a frustrating start to the Europeans Championship on Lake Maggiore with little to no wind, the first day of the final series brought great conditions built for skiffs. Three races were held for all fleets with conditions ranging from 3-11 knots changing the standings for the leaders across the board.
The leaders of the qualifying series all fell back today and out of the top 3, while those behind took advantage of the conditions and excelled. Zack Downing and Andrew Cates (USA) sailed a 8-5-4 to move them into the lead followed by James Sly/Tom Dwyer (AUS) who won the first race and sit three points behind the leaders. Fresh off their win at the ISAF Youth Worlds, Carlos Robles and Florian Trittel (ESP) sit in third overall and are another three points behind second place.
Regatta leaders Downing and Cates commented, “The competition is a lot more intense in Europe; the gold fleet is way harder than the qualifying fleets were; all the best are in one fleet. Our strategy was to stay in phase with the pressure and shifts.” And on their plan for tomorrow; “Boat speed, good starts, tactics and technique.”
Carlos Robles, third place helm, ISAF gold medallist and top European commented, “It was quite a difficult day with really shifty conditions and light winds. In the last race we were winning but we had a 40 degree shift to the right and we finished 14th, but it doesn’t matter - tomorrow we’ll see.”
Leaders in the silver fleet are Ian Payne and Chris Berry (GBR); bronze fleet - Maia and Ragna Agerup (NOR) and emerald fleet Johanna Summerland and Lukas Bergman (SWE).
The final races will be sailed tomorrow with the champions crowned at the prizegiving at 5:00pm at Centro Dannemann.
For more information and full results: www.29ereuropeans.org
Locarno contact: Markus Blaesi: +41 76 444 6782
