2011 Skandia Sail For Gold

REGATTA REPORT

href=“http://www.skandiasailforgoldregatta.co.uk

/”>Event website

Day One:
The Star and Finn classes were not released to sail to their course until 15:00 hrs and had the most distant course. They finally got racing at 17:30 after the wind had settled, and managed a single race. It was all about Brazil’s Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada and Poland’s Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki, who finished tied after two races with a first and second each.

Day Two
The third race was completed and the 4th race finally started after several general recalls and postponments at 14:35. A couple of Stars dismasted in developing winds and the AP/H went up with the Stars being sent ashore.

Weymouth turned it today with sunshine and an afternoon breeze that topped out in excess of 25 knots on the outer courses. Scheidt and Prada prospered in the breeze, adding two second places to their bullet from yesterday. Five points behind are two-time Olympic medalist, Mateusz Kusznierewicz sailing with Domini Zycki (POL). Another two-time Olympic medalist Fredrik Loof (SWE), sailing with Max Salminen are 14 points behind the Brazilians in third. In a class that is stacked with medalists, current Olympic champion Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson started their climb up the leaderboard. A fourth and 11th place leaves them 12th overall after three races have been completed.

Day Three:
The forecasters didn’t get the third day of Skandia Sail for Gold wrong, as Weymouth was battered by unseasonably strong winds. The average wind speed on the breakwater read 25 knots throughout the day, with gusts up to 29 knots. There was damage to boats, broken masts and capsizes, stuff that you rarely see from the top Olympic sailors in the world. Stars were again sent out to course foxtrot - over five miles offshore-where there wasn’t just the wind to contend with but a difficult sea state. The result was damage for some, including four of the Stars breaking their masts. None of the leading contenders suffered that fate, Freddy Loof and Max Salminen (SWE) relished the conditions with a 2,1 scoreline and moved up into second place behind double gold and silver Olympic medallist Robert Scheidt and his Brazilian partner Bruno Prada. Poland’s Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki hold third. The race committee decided not to go for a third race due to the amount of breakages in the fleet.

Day Four:
A relative calm descended on Weymouth Bay this morning, after the battering from the day before. In the Stars, Brazil’s multiple Olympic medalist Robert Scheidt and his crew Bruno Prada saw their five point lead over Sweden’s Freddy Loof and Max Salminen cut to a tie but in Scheidt/Prada’s favor. Loof and Salminen posted scores of 4, 1 and 2, and Scheidt had to pull out all the stops to win the last race from the charging Swedes and hold onto his overall lead. Poland’s Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki remained steady in third, but 15 points off the lead.

Day Five:
Two races were completed for a total of ten for the regatta. In the 9th race, eight of the fleet were black flagged.

The weather contrived to throw everything at the sailors, with a gentle start in just five to six knots turning savage as a squall crossed the course in the afternoon, bringing gusts up to 20 knots and eventually a cold, hard rain.

The gold will be decided in the medal race by who beats who - the Brazilian partnership of Scheidt and Prada still top the leaderboard, but are now on equal points with the Swedes, Loof and Salminen. The pair have a massive 30 point cushion to third placed Diego Negri and Enrico Voltolini from Italy, who moved up to third by winning the final race of the day.

Medal Race
The Star fleet all arrived at the first mark at the same time

EVENT DESCRIPTION

ISAF World Cup.