Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose and unfortunately today was the latter for day two of the 44Cup Marstrand World Championship 2019.
At the skippers briefing in the morning PRO Peter 'Luigi' Reggio kept the crews ashore. The race committee then took to the high seas to the west of Marstrand island to check out the conditions. They kept abreast of the situation, on the hour updating crews and owners with news as they waiting patiently in the 44Cup hospitality area on Marstrand's quayside. However when there was still no wind at 1530, Reggio pulled the plug on racing for the day.
“Forecast was for 6-7 knots and we never saw over 4 – I don't think at any given time did we have 20 minutes where we could have been sailing, let alone racing,” described Reggio. “The wind was flicking between 180° and 280° and there was no consistency in the puffs going right and the lulls going left or vica versa. Whatever the direction was, was what it wanted to be… It just wasn't going to work.”
Down on the dock the sailors were making themselves useful as they patiently awaited the outcome. “There has been a bit of breeze in the harbour and I haven't been out, but I trust Luigi to take the right decision,” said Michele Ivaldi, tactician on Hugues Lepic's Aleph Racing, which currently leads the 44Cup Marstrand World Championship 2019 by three points. “It is true that it is light until 10pm but you have to draw the line somewhere.
“There was one 470 race I did in Kiel may years ago when we had a warning signal at 8pm. But this is a World Championship and it needs to be fair racing with decent breeze. Let's hope the wind machine switches on tomorrow.”
As to why there was no breeze today, there was been much head scratching. The water temperature off Marstrand is cold while ashore it has been a hot day with brilliant sunshine – in theory the two components required for a sea breeze to develop. And yet it didn't.
As to tomorrow, Peter Reggio remains optimistic: “It should be a little bit better than it was today.” Follow live at www.44Cup.org.
