Race Area
Pretty far off shore, no land effects
Start
Some pin end bias, giving 8m of upwind distance difference between RC and Pin end.
Ita 6 took the lead from the pin. GBR 55 was looking pretty solid also. A bit later, right hand side boats started to gain on them. GBR 9, had great lift coming at one moment. Start line coordinates are approximate, most probably not far from the actual ones.
1st Upwind
Mostly left trend, giving advantage to the boats sailing more left. Ita 6 kept the lead, and increased it once GER 11 went more right. At the very end there were some big left kicks, some boats sailing very high on port, while the others suffered on and above the starboard layline.
- Right quite red soon after the start. two left boats sailing in the lift
- In the 2nd part of upwind good pressure mid left.
- Some boats heavily lifted on port tack. Starboard sailing to the mark was very red
Top Mark
Very tight at the top. Many port tack arriving boats forced to bear away hard. No boats far over the right layline, compacting the right layline, reducing the chances of port tack boats. ITA 6 cleanest, increasing the lead significantly, gaining from 6-23 seconds on the others.
1st Downwind
The wind kept on going left, boats were bearing away on starboard tack. This made it harder for them to cross to the mark against the shift. ITA 3, with earlier gybe, benefited on that shift and ended up the best one after ITA 6. The last three boats gained well on the leader at the very end of the leg.
- Left shift
- Sailing high on port tack, losing due to the left shift.
Gate Rounding
Even though the bias was only 3m, it still creates 6m more of direct upwind sailing if you go around the unfavored one. In such a close race it can already make a solid difference. GBR 55 and FRA 72 gained on ESP 18 due to that bias, clearly visible on animation. Later on, boats on the right were gaining, visible in TTL graph. ESP 44 probably gaining the most there.
2nd Upwind
Overall wind direction didn’t change much. Still there were lots of places where boats could gain or lose. At the beginning, all boats were catching up on leader, especially ESP 44. later on they or lost to leader. Ger 20 was the only one going hard down in this leg. The others stayed very close.
ESP 44 was gaining from the right side. However, on the left, FRA 7 and GBR 55 had some nice gains with some big left shifs. At the last part of the leg, those two were the only ones not losing to the leader at all.
Many boats sailed in unfavored shift for short periods. Maybe even more tacks were needed to stay positive.
Many places where boats sailed against the shift for short periods.
2nd Top Mark
Very tricky rounding again. Ger 20 and Fra 72 did the best.
2nd Downwind
there were more ways to do a solid leg, perhaps a bit safer with the straight set. GER 20, behind the others had the best leg, followed by ESP 44. On the other side, GBR 9 and ESP 18 were also solid sailing great angle and speed after the gybe set.
Gybeset boats very green after the set. Struggled a bit later.
Last Mark
Very close, ESP 44 just overlapped inside and jumped ahead.