RC 44 Sweden

The fleet racing portion of the event got underway today. Unfortunately the wind was very fickle and only allowed for one very light wind race. There was an abundance of sunshine though which made for a pleasant day.

Artemis Racing with Torbjorn Tornqvist at the helm sailed a great first windward leg and first run to hold a commanding lead at the half way point. Up the second windward leg, Artemis went to the left side while Ceref and Aleph went to the right. In the end it was the right that panned out. Mind you this all played out in 5 knots of wind.

Onboard Katusha, we were having a bit of trouble with the fickle wind and rounded the first mark in second to last place. We battled back a bit up the second windward leg and then down the final run to finish a respectable 10th. The finish is off a castle which is at the end of a narrow channel. With the wind running straight down the channel, this made for a very tricky finish with all the boats gybing on each other and bunching up. We had a bit of luck and things went our way to pass three boats in this last little bit of the race.

The forecast for tomorrow is better, in fact there could be quite a lot of wind. Gennadi had to attend to business and left after racing today so Sarah Gunderson will be our helmsperson tomorrow and through to the end of the regatta.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com

Paul