DAY FOUR HYERES REGATTA UPDATE

Below is Tommy Wharton's latest post to the CYA site. Oliver Bone and Stéphane Locas (BYC) picked up an 11th in their best race, before the 470 fleets were divided. The other two races resulted in mid-fleet positions. When the fleets were divided they were placed in the silver fleet where they are currently 4th overall within that grouping. Genevieve Bougie-Bastien (RSt.LYC) took 28th in the most recently reported Laser Radial race. Dominique Vallée (Club Multivoile) is now in 32nd in the Womens' RSX. - Ralph Stocek, Montreal Sailing


Report by Tommy Wharton
National Team Sailing Coach
Wednesday April 23, 2008

What a difference a day makes! Day Three of Hyeres Week was blown out due to a strong “Mistral” breeze which held most fleets ashore. The 470 Men and Laser Radials were actually sent out to the racecourse, but the puffs were easily in the 30 plus knot range. The Race Committee made the smart decision on Tuesday to abandon racing for the day. On Wednesday, Day Four of the event, fleets with two fleets had been divided into their respective gold fleets, and all Olympic disciplines were ready to commence racing again with many sailors excited to get the opportunity to discard their worst score (at five races). The sail out brought a pleasant building westerly in the 7-10 knot range, but there were forecasts that outlined a possible switch to a sea breeze direction later in the day.

This is exactly what happened, and it led to a very complex day on the water. It depended on the racecourse, but many races were abandoned when this 180 directional change happened, and if wasn’t abandoned it made for some massive lead changes. In the Laser Gold Fleet, David Wright sailed to a solid 3rd place in the first race of the day, and followed this up with a 20th to shoot up the overall rankings to 12th overall. Mike Leigh had a strong 10th in the first race, while sailing to his drop in the second. Mike’s consistency so far still leaves him 2nd overall, and he enters the final day of racing before the medal race on Friday well within sights of the overall leader from New Zealand. Well done Mike!

In the Finn Fleet, Chris Cook started with a strong 6th place in the first of his three races. After this race, he was a strong first overall. Unfortunately, the next two races did not go to plan and Chris now sits in 6th place. Tomorrow will be a big day for Cooker, with some ground needed to be made on the leaders, but the double point medal race on Friday will be super tight and ultimately decide the podium finishers. Tornado sailors Oskar Johnasson and Kevin Stittle are on the cusp of medal race potential here, and are also looking for a strong showing tomorrow to set up this showdown on Friday.

** Canadian Results:

Finn
6th – Chris Cook

Laser
2nd – Mike Leigh
12th - David Wright
107 - Abe Torchinsky

Laser Radial
36th – Lisa Ross
66nd – Keamia Rasa

Tornado
13th – Oskar Johansson and Kevin Stittle

49er
21st – Gordon Cook and Ben Remocker

470 Male
42nd – Stephane Locas and Oliver Bone

RSX Female
23nd – Nikola Girke
32nd – Dominique Vallee

RSX Male
61st – David Hayes