SSL Gold Cup European Qualifiers Day 1, One race before the heavens opened

With the African and Oceanian Qualifiers complete it was all change in Grandson, Switzerland with seven Europeans arriving, ready to try and book their ticket to Rio.

The weekend saw the teams arrive, collect their jerseys, weigh in, train on the water, and complete the necessary registrations ahead of racing.

The opening two days have a busy schedule of two races for each group, with the first teams on the water being the Austrian Eagles, Estonian Icebreakers and Slovenia Krpani 1860 in Group D.

The race team were keen to get the ball rolling early with heavy rain and possibly thunderstorms due in the late afternoon, but with only 2 knots of wind on Lake Neuchâtel, they were forced to delay the first start. Thankfully after 20 minutes things improved, and the powerful SSL47 yachts with their 22 metre tall rigs are able to get powered up in even the lightest of breezes.

Group D Race 1

The three teams lined up side-by-side, but were collectively seven seconds late to cross the line with the Austrian Eagles claiming the early advantage. Connecting the patches of breeze and minimising manoeuvres was going to be key, maintaining boatspeed at all times.

The Estonia Icebreakers kept things beautifully smooth, working their way to the front whilst also controlling the opposition on the right hand side of the upwind leg, only to lose it when they let the Austrian Eagles break cover, soaring into the lead with a tight tack on the Icebreakers into the windward mark with Slovenia Krpani 1860 a long way back.

The name of the game downwind was keep it smooth and keep your air clean, with Austria and Estonia playing a cat-and-mouse game to the leeward gate in the light airs, and the teams choosing different buoys to round. Crucially, Estonia had to complete an extra gybe to go to the left hand buoy which slowed them significantly.

On the final upwind leg at the first cross Austria had a slender lead, tacking directly on top of Estonia, forcing them back to the right, rounding the top mark ahead, but Austria chose to gybe early downwind. This left Estonia to go all the way to the layline, which they nailed perfectly, crossing the finish line just ahead of Austria who had to complete a costly extra gybe to cross the line second with Slovenia languishing to finish four minutes behind.

Estonian Icebreakers helm Mati Sepp reflected on the close racing with Austria and the decisive move on the final leg: “It was a tight battle and we were sailing with very similar boatspeed and manoeuvres, quite nerve wracking! Basically on the run we had a little bit better speed on both downwind legs, and they started to be afraid that we were too close to them and they decided to gybe. We were confident that the right side was going to pay and we continued, constantly sailing with faster boatspeed, and the wind shifted left a little, so we overtook them.

Australian Eagles Captain Thomas Zajac - and Olympic medallist - said on the battle: “It was tense! We were always trying to focus on ourselves as much as we could, but at the same time we needed to check the other boats. We enjoyed the tight racing - it wasn’t getting boring I can tell you!”

On their gybe away from the Estonians on the final downwind leg Thomas added: “We thought we were going into lighter air, so we gybed and thought when we came back together we’d have the right of way, but in hindsight I can tell you it was not a good decision!”

A soaking for Group E

After an hour’s delay when the wind switched off completely, the Race Committee decided to switch the groups on the water to try and get one race in for everybody, so the Belgian Sea Devils, Lithuanian Ambers, Norwegian Norsteam and Serbian Eagles were ferried out to the yachts.

Unfortunately for them, the heavens opened soon after they were aboard, soaking them to the skin, and with the rumble of thunder to the north around the Jura mountain range moving down the valley, the Race Officer was forced to raise AP over A and cancel racing for the day. But as Pietro Fantoni said from the committee boat, “Sailing is a water sport. If you don’t want to be wet, chess is your sport!” 

Sailing expert and SSL Gold Cup co-commentator Robbie McCutcheon discussed the importance of keeping your team focused when conditions result in a delay to racing: “Especially in these lighter conditions you’re on and then you’re off again; you have to balance that on and off time as you can’t be concentrating the entire day. Switching modes and tuning back is key.”

Thankfully conditions are looking better on Tuesday, with a South Westerly wind of 10-12 knots forecast, albeit with a bit of rain, which should bring the schedule back on track.