2023 Foiling Week ETF26 Race 7

All tracking logged by Vakaros devices

Start

Unfortunately, the start was not tracked so only the approx estimated time of start was used.

At the start, BLUS and TOROA were more than 40m behind with other boats quite close to each other. ENMO kept the lead from leeward, while LVOC was the fastest and rolled the other boats with 2-4kts more speed.

1st downwind

It was all about going to the corner and getting a good layline. LADY team got rolled by multiple boats already on starboard tack, falling from the 2nd to 6th place. Initially, the boats stretched away, then there was some compression, probably due to the lack of wind. BLUS was the only one gaining on the leaders all the time and sailing above 20kts of speed.

1st LW Gate

Looking at the gate rounding, there was some right-shifted wind at the right gate (looking upwind), so ENMO and BLUS took it and gained quite a lot compared to LVOC. The boat that went down and up the fastest was TMPR, doing the last 100m of downwind and the first 100m of upwind in 49 seconds, compared to some boats that have done it almost 20s slower.

1st upwind

At the beginning all the boats that went a bit right have been gaining, with the LADY team gaining more than 150m on the leaders with the both highest speed and angle. Towards the top mark, left boats were gaining meters back and LADY and BLUS have lost big part of their initial gain. The course was also pretty skewed, giving left boats enough time to gain back.

Upwind Gate

LVOC was the only one choosing the right hand gate and it was more than 30m upwind than the left one. So already when rounding was equal to TMPR that was 50m behind them approaching the top mark.

2nd Downwind

The decision to round the right-hand mark created a big loss for LVOC even though the very first part of the downing they were even gaining. Of the other boats, TMPR was rolling BLUS after rounding, but towards the gate, wind was coming hard from the right so BLUS rolled them back.

2nd Upwind

The big right shift was making the right-hand gate a lot more windward than the left one. However, this was a trap since there was a huge curve in the wind direction sailing to the left side. So initial gain by LVOC and LADY was turning soon into a loss. ENMO realized this danger and was full-speed rolling over BLUS and TMPR to put themselves into a safe position.