Another classic Palma day greeted the 49er sailors to finish out the gold fleet. There was a slight delay as the sea breeze built before the fleets got their full schedule of racing in wind that built to 14 knots and then slowly decreased through the rest of the day.
The 49erFX fleet point spread closed up a little bit as the Kiwi´s, Alex Maloney and Molly Meech, scored a 1, 2, 2 today. That shrunk the lead of Nielson and Olson of Denmark to only 8 points. The top eight boats will complete in ´the theatre´ tomorrow with 4 theatre style races scheduled.
The 49er fleet started the day how they finished yesterday, with utter domination by Sailing Team Germany´s Erik Heil and Thomas Plossel. After winning all three races yesterday, they won the first race today by a fair margin. They did finally made their first mistake in the 5th race however, being over the line early during a black flag start causing their disqualification. That set up a critical final race for the Germans.
Despite the German domination, two teams are still in striking distance. Evans/Pows of GBR and Norregard/Thomsen of DEN are in second and third respectively. Each of these teams carried decent scores as their drop races so if the Germans were to falter they could pounce on the opportunity and bring them much closer for the final day.
Holding true to form in the Gold fleet, Heil/Plossel scored a 5th in the final race to take a 13 point lead into the final. while their rivals sailed some of their poorest races of the regatta. It will be a difficult challenge to claw back so many points in the theatre.
In the middle of the pack are 4 experienced teams who are all very close on points. Morrisson/Rhodes and Warrer/Lang are both Olympians and the other two teams both featured heavily in the 2012 European theatre Style finals. The Paz brothers of Spain were leading the finals before being knocked off their boat by the Irish team of Seaton/McGovern at a leeward mark. The French team of Frie/Rocherieux were clearly comfortable in the theatre, winning the event from all the way back in 6th place.
Jonathan Bay of Denmark was the final helmsman to qualify for the Theatre Style final. “This is so important for us. For a while now, we´ve been happy with how we´ve been sailing and happy with our regattas, but we haven´t gotten the results. Now, finally, we see it on the scoreboard for the first time,“ he said. Bay and Thorsnell beat out the Alonso brothers of Spain by just a single point.
The Alonso brothers have been unlucky twice in a row now with the new format system. They lead qualifying in Garda only for it to be discarded by the format there. Here in Palma, they again did well in qualifying coming in 5th to Bay/Thorsnells 22nd and miss out again.
and in the 49erFX fleet seven countries will be represented.
The 49er fleet started the day how they finished yesterday, with utter domination by Sailing Team Germany´s Erik Heil and Thomas Plossel. After winning all three races yesterday, they won the first race today by a fair margin. They made their first mistake in the 5th race however, being over the line early during a black flag start causing their disqualification. That set up a critical final race for the Germans in the final race of the Gold fleet. Holding true to form in the Gold fleet, Heil/Plossel scored a 5th in the final race to take a 13 point lead into the final.
Despite the German domination, two teams are still in striking distance. Evans/Pows of GBR and Norregard/Thomsen of DEN are in second and third respectively. Each of these teams carried decent scores as their drop races so if the Germans were to falter they could pounce on the opportunity and bring them much closer for the final day. Unfortunately for them, they were both beaten by the Germans and sailed some of their poorest races of the regatta. It will be a difficult challenge to claw back so many points in the theatre.
In the middle of the pack are 4 experienced teams who are all very close on points. Morrisson/Rhodes and Warrer/Lang are both Olympians and the other two teams both featured heavily in the 2012 European theatre Style finals. The Paz brothers of Spain were leading the finals before being knocked off their boat by the Irish team of Seaton/McGovern at a leeward mark. The French team of Frie/Rocherieux were clearly comfortable in the theatre, winning the event from all the way back in 6th place.
Jonathan Bay of Denmark was the final helmsman to qualify for the Theatre Style final. “This is so important for us. For a while now, we´ve been happy with how we´ve been sailing and happy with our regattas, but we haven´t gotten the results. Now, finally, we see it on the scoreboard for the first time,“ he said. Bay and Thorsnell beat out the Alonso brothers of Spain by just a single point.
The Alonso brothers have been unlucky twice in a row now with the new format system. They lead qualifying in Garda only for it to be discarded by the format there. Here in Palma, they again did well in qualifying coming in 5th to Bay/Thorsnells 22nd and miss out again.
