Lack of wind prevents J Class racing at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez today, but a champagne finale is on the cards
Today the winds proved too light and too unsettled for racing to take place for the J Class fleet at the giant Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez regatta. The three teams on Svea, Rainbow and Hanuman waited patiently in the intermittent drizzle but by 1400hrs local time it became obvious there was going to be no significant improvement and racing was cancelled.
While the crews were all disappointed not to be able to resume their regatta after Wednesday’s statutory lay day, the forecast for Friday and Saturday is quite promising and should allow the current schedule of two windward-leeward races tomorrow and one on Saturday to be completed.
After a technical breakdown on Tuesday cost Swedish flagged Svea points, the pre-regatta favourites should have ample opportunity to bounce back and maintain their impressive winning record.
Svea’s navigator Steve Hayles summed up the day and explained the outlook, “It was really tricky today in fact, as we went out with a forecast which was saying zero to 20 knots was a possibility but the rain was never going to help and the gradient wind was an odd direction and this late in the year the sea temperature is quite warm and that actually puts a bit of a cap on any sea breeze. But we are confident that tomorrow we should see 10-14 knots, clear skies more typical of what we hope for in Saint-Tropez, just perfect for these boats, they really like that 10-15 knots, nicely powered up with a flat sea state. We have a lot to do now having missed two races, but we are sailing the boat very well and loving having three boats. We had two boats and great racing in Palma but now three is fantastic and hopefully more to come. Our aim is just to finish the week strong.”
With three races sailed by the J Class at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez all three teams have now won one race each. Going into the final two days, Rainbow and Hanuman are tied on 3pts, with Svea on 5pts.
On Wednesday the three Js enjoyed a short, fun challenge on the Golfe de Saint-Tropez racing with no spinnakers, sailing round a three-leg triangular course of about one hour’s duration. After a spirited, close race it was Svea which scored a narrow win to lift the inaugural J Class Challenge Cup before the crews repaired for an afternoon together at the renowned Club 55.
Racing resumes Friday 2nd October and finishes Saturday 3rd October.
Les Voiles de Saint Tropez, J Class - standings after three races including one discard: 1 J-H2 Rainbow 2,1,(2) 3pts 2 J-K6 Hanuman 3pts (3),2,1 J-S1 Svea 1,4,(4) 5pts
