Today was about team racing and there were two stages, ‘Alpha’ and ‘Bravo’. There is no specification for the separation only that there are a large number of competitors. Each team consists of four members who are put forward to represent their country together and then each team is paired with a second team to race in flights. Selection for the flights aims at giving competitors from all rankings a chance to race each other. The courses are shorter and faster, much like match racing, with all protests and penalties being dealt with immediately on the water as dictated by overseeing Jury members. Start sequences are shorter and there are no general recalls. The manner in which the course is set is an excellent test of ones knowledge of the rules as they round the marks between equal upwind, reach, downwind, reach and then upwind legs.
Though there were a few breaks in the wind where the ‘AP’ flag was raised, wind stayed consistent enough to reveal half of the semi-finalists. Tomorrow’s races will see which country’s team will earn World Champion status.
The teams that made it to the team race finals are:
- Singapore
- Netherlands
- USA
- Greece
- Switzerland
- Argentina
- Sweden
- Hungary
- Poland
- UK
- Spain
- Chile
- Germany
- Slovenia
- Brazil
- Thailand
Overall provisional results after today are; Rok Verderber [SLO 2307] leading with 8.0 points (1,5,1,1,), followed by Suthon Yampinid [THA 2243] also with 8.0 points (1,1,4,2) and third so far is Daniel Hung [SIN 112] with 11.0 points (2,1,4,4).
Full results here. Otto Henry is the leading Australian in 15th place in the 275 boat fleet.
