The remains of Hurricane Isaac, which has reached the Rías Baixas as the first big squall of the season, have not prevented the 6 Metre fleet from taking to the water today to complete up to three races in the Pontevedra estuary.
The event organised by the Real Club Náutico de Sanxenxo is progressing with a full programme of races so far and with ‘Bribon’ and ‘Junior’ leading the battle for the continental title of the class.
The competition programme of the Xacobeo Trophy, which puts the European 6-Metre Championship at stake in the waters of the Pontevedra estuary, is progressing at cruising speed, defying the difficult weather conditions and with the leaders ‘Bribon’ and ‘Junior’ fighting for the coveted lead on the race course in the Pontevedra estuary.
The last blows of Hurricane Isaac – now turned into a squall – were felt this Tuesday in the Rías Baixas. As on the opening day, Sanxenxo dawned today with rain and very little visibility in the Pontevedra estuary. The wind, however, blew strongly from the early hours of the day and the race committee was quick to lower the postponement flag to get the competition underway.
With a south-south-westerly of an average of 14 knots and still under a heavy rain, the fleet heard the first horn at 13:15 hours with the starting line located in front of the breakwater of the Real Club Náutico de Sanxenxo (RCNS). In total, three intense races in which the teams had to give one hundred per cent.
Bribon’ clings on to the lead in Classics
In the Classics fleet the fight for first place is likely to be between two teams for the moment: the ‘Bribon’ of King Juan Carlos, which today had Ross McDonald at the head of the crew, and the Finnish ‘Astree III’ of Ossi Paija.
With two seconds and one more first place in his locker, the ‘Bribon’ continues as overall leader ahead of Paija’s team, which added a first, a second and a fourth, and maintains second place three points behind the RCNS boat. More distanced is the ‘Titia’ of Mauricio Sanchez-Bella, who today signed a great day getting his first race victory in the last race of the day, so that he now occupies the third step of the provisional podium. He is followed by Luis Heckly’s French entry ‘Fun’, in fourth place.
The skipper and owner of ‘Astree III’ explained once ashore that ‘today has been a very interesting day. The first thing was to understand where the windward buoy was, because you couldn’t see it, and the next thing was to see the leeward buoy for the same reason. But yes, a day with a lot of swell, rain and fog. Everything the sky can give you’.
‘We had a fantastic day of sailing and we are still in the fight. Bribón is in the lead and we are in second place, so it’s within reach. We are still looking forward to the next days of the championship,’ added Paija.
Change of leader in a very tight Open class
In the Open division the overall couldn’t be tighter with the top five teams separated by only five points. The second day of the Xacobeo Trophy has tightened the battle for the European title of the class to the maximum and the three victories on Tuesday were shared by the Swiss ‘Junior’ of Rainer Muller, the American ‘Jane Ann’ of Basil Vasilioi and the Finnish ‘Oiva’ of Henrik Andersin.
With 9-1-2 results, ‘Junior’ was the best overall today and moved up from second to first place to become the new leader of the event, relegating the American skippered by Staffan Lindberg to the second step of the provisional podium with 8-5-1 results. Behind him, Finland’s ‘Oiva’ moved up two places to third.
Only one point separates the top three, which in turn have a narrow advantage of four points over the fourth and fifth place: the British ‘Battlecry’ of Jeremy Thorp and the ‘Stella’ of Violeta Alvarez, who competes under the banner of the RCNS. A very tight overall rankning where everything is still to be decided.
‘It has been a complicated and rainy day, but in the end it was a great day for us with a first, a second and a ninth. We managed to take our lead despite a bad start,’ said Nicolas Berthoud, crew member on “Junior”.
Tomorrow, the action returns to the Pontevedra estuary from 12:00.
*Classification pending protests at 20h00.