12mR Worlds in Porquerolles is off to a great start

Good start! Good start! Here we go for the first day of racing at the 12mR World Championship in Porquerolles. At 10.05am, the race committee gave the first start to the only race of the day. The conditions were sporty and tough, with an easterly wind of around fifteen knots easing off at the start before strengthening to 40 knots just after the end of the constructed course.

Today's winners are : Group 1 - Kookaburra II and Group 2: Jenetta.

Shades of grey

An 'autumnal' atmosphere in Porquerolles today, with misty skies in shades of grey, white, heavy seas and a strengthening easterly wind at the end of the morning, with a peak of 53 knots recorded by the last competitor to reach port at the end of the first race... amazing conditions in Porquerolles at this time of year.
At 10:05 this morning, the race committee launched the first race of the 12m JI World Championship, putting on a magnificent show in Hyères harbour. Let's get started! Ҫa smokes on the water in front of Porquerolles. The 224 sailors present were finally able to get to grips with the 6.7-mile course, which the frontrunners covered in less than an hour. At the end of the morning, squalls dotted the skies over Porquerolles, forcing a well-deserved return to shore after this invigorating start.
Back in port, the pontoons were abuzz with activity, with all the crews showing great solidarity to help each other and tie up to the pontoon.

Group 1: Kookaburra II (KA12) won the day's race ahead of French Kiss (F7) and Crusader (K24).

Group 2: Jenetta (K1) won this first race ahead of Northern Light (US14) and Nini Anker (N15).

Santiago Lange - Kookaburra II (KA12): "It's a great race for us, Torben got off to a great start and the boat is going really fast... The world championship is off to a great start!"

Marc Pajot - French Kiss (K7) : " We finished 2nd, we're happy, it's good. The conditions were amazing, the weather forecast had predicted these possibilities but we had a very strong squall after the race. We sailed well, held on well and passed the first mark in 4th position, then we made up the ground as we needed to. There's a lot of confidence in the crew and that's the most important thing."

Thomas Mueller - Jenetta (K1): "We had a very good race, we were well positioned in relation to our rivals. The competition promises to be very close between all the boats. Winning the first race is always good for the morale of the crew."