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Delta Lloyd Regatta 2014 - Day 3 - Onan Barreiros Rodriguez and Juan Curbelo Cabrera (ESP) to take the overall lead in the 470 men
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Glamour weather and tricky winds dominated the third day of racing at the Delta Lloyd Regatta. The day looked perfect for sailing, but the word from the sailors coming shore was of shifty, gusty winds that kept everyone on their toes through the day.
Forecasts of a significant drop in the wind in the afternoon were luckily wrong, and while the wind did decrease from the 15-18 knots in the morning there was still a healthy breeze late in the afternoon when the Moths were finishing their final race of the day. And the sun shone down on the 350 sailors from 49 nations all day long. It was a great day to be sailing.
Megan Pascoe (GBR) had a perfect day in the 2.4 mR with two race wins. Michelle Broekhuizen and Marieke Jongens (NED) in the women's 470, Nicholas Heiner (NED) in the Laser, Marit Bouwmeester (NED) in the Laser Radial, Phillip Kasueske (GER) in the Finn, Zofia Klepacka (POL) in RS:X women, Alexandra Rickham and Niki Burrell (GBR) in the Skud 18 and Bruno Jourdren, Eric Flageul and Nicolas Vimont-Vicary (FRA) in the Sonar all maintained their leads.
There were new leaders in the men's 470 with Onan Barreiros Rodriguez and Juan Curbelo Cabrera (ESP), in the 49er with Pavle Kostov and Petar Cupac (CRO), in the Nacra with Billy Besson and Marie Riou (FRA), in the RS:X men's with Louis Giard (FRA).
Today was also the first day for the two demonstration events, the Kitesurfers and the Moths. Both fleets enjoyed showing off what they could in waters off Medemblik.
470 Men
A second and a third place today was enough for Onan Barreiros Rodriguez and Juan Curbelo Cabrera (ESP) to take the overall lead in the 470 men. Barreiros commented, “Today was difficult because the wind was nice, but so shifty. Also the first mark was close to the beach. Today we are happy at the end with a second and a third. Our first day here was really bad, when we collected 24 points, but tomorrow we will aim for top five and try and keep first overall.”
“We are using new sails here and I need to test them at a regatta before the Europeans. It's different to test in training and a regatta. But I am very happy with the new sails, especially the spinnaker.”
Luke Patience and Elliot Willis (GBR) dropped to second after picking up a black flag disqualification (BFD) in the first race, and then placing tenth in the second. Patience said, “It was a tricky start. The flag and the hooter were not timed the same and we had set our watch at clearly the wrong time, so we were just over a metre too early, but it was our misjudgement.”
“In the last race we were in good control, and then the race went from pretty big gusts up to 17 knots down to suddenly high wiring at about 7 knots and when it does that, when you have created so much leverage planing, you are really exposed, and we just got it wrong. We were in the wrong place. And then when you're not planing you just can't get back. A small error turned out to be huge in terms of numbers, so a bit frustrating.”
Giulio Desiderato and Andrea Trani (ITA) also picked up a BFD to drop to third. The second race of the day was won by Asenathi Jim and Roger Hudson (RSA). Hudson said, “It was nice that we got some breezy conditions. It made a bit of a change and we enjoyed that. In the first race we had a good start and were in a great spot but we broke our vang, and had to fix that in the middle of the race and it cost us a lot, but we managed to get back to eighth. So that wasn’t too bad.
“In the second race we had a similar start and strategy and it went very well and we ended up leading at the top mark. Although it was fairly breezy the wind was really up and down, so it was absolutely critical to stay in the big pressure. That made life quite difficult defending, but we did a pretty good job with a lot of experienced, high quality guys on our tail. We were very happy to close out the win.”
For Jim and Hudson, the Delta Lloyd Regatta marks three years since they first sailed together. “The Delta Lloyd Regatta marks the anniversary of when we started sailing together here in 2011 and we like to come back here because it reminds us where we started.”
Photo : © Guilain GRENIER
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