Morning Report: Eight events in play today

Today’s racing will take place in:

• • RS:X Men
• • RS:X Women
• • Finn Men
• • 470 Men
• • 470 Women
• • 49er Men
• • 49er FX Women
• • Foiling Nacra 17 Mixed

Phewww! Have we got a few races going on today in Enoshima. Day 4 of the Sailing competition is the busiest yet, with the Nacra 17 catamaran and 470 Men and 470 Women’s events getting going today. In fact it’s easier to say who’s not competing, which is the Laser Men and Laser Radial Women; their hiking legs will enjoy a day to recover. 

With moderate south-westerly winds it should be a champagne day on the water, although the waves might present a challenge to the foiling catamarans. The Nacra 17 event sees the return of the darlings of Rio 2016, Olympic Champions Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza Saroli. Last Friday together this team carried the Argentinean flag into the Olympic stadium, a good omen for the coming battle maybe? 

Another flag bearer was Great Britain’s Hannah Mills, back to defend her 470 Olympic title with first-time Games competitor Eilidh McIntyre, with plenty of competition from the likes of France, Spain, Italy and Japan.

In the Men’s 470 fleet, all-time greatest 470 sailor Mat Belcher along with crew Will Ryan are out to go one better than their silver medal from Rio 2016. There are many rivals standing in their way, however, notably reigning World Champions, Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom from Sweden.

The Finns are into their second day of racing and Turkey’s Alican Kaynar is out to build on his perfect Tuesday when he won both opening heats of the Men’s Heavyweight division. 

Charlotte Dobson & Saskia Tidey have been fast out of the blocks on their 49erFX, winning the first two races while all around them chaos was breaking loose. It could be like that all week, and will be great to watch where fortune chooses to point its fickle finger of destiny.

The young Irish team of Rob Dickson and Sean Waddilove are in the mood for taking on the giants of the 49er Men’s fleet, and came out on top in a photo finish in yesterday’s opening race, taking the winner’s gun by the width of a footloop ahead of 2017 World Champions Dylan Fletcher & Stu Bithell (GBR). Back in 12th were defending Olympic Champions Pete Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL). All of New Zealand – along with quite a few neutrals – expects the fight-back to begin today.

After a day’s break, the RS:X Women are back in play, with Olympic Champion Charline Picon (FRA) holding the lead on equal points with young British windsurfing talent Emma Wilson. Yunxiu Lu has been out of competition for two years but the Chinese sailor seems to remember how it works. She’s just two points off the lead.

After a successful protest against Kiran Badloe (NED) two days ago, Mattia Camboni (ITA) has surfed to the top of the RS:X Men’s rankings, the Italian four points ahead of Mateo Sanz Lanz (SUI). These two love light winds, but will struggle to hold on to Badloe if the breeze is above 10 knots. After his disqualification from race 5, the Dutchman is in third place, five points off the lead.

Weather

Mostly sunny with cloudy temporarily with a low chance of thunderstorm.
Gradient winds WSW 15kt, SSW 15-20kt from 09LT (local time).
Race Area surface wind weak until 8LT,
S-SSW 7-16kt G13-19kt from 8LT,
S-SSW 16-21kt G20-27kt from 12LT.
Sea state: 1.0-2.0m wave height.

Schedule

Fujisawa Course

1200hrs RS:X Men, 3 races
1210hrs RS:X Women, 3 races

Zushi Course

1200hrs  Finn, 2 Races

Enoshima Course

1200hrs  470 Men, 2 races
1430hrs  470 Women, 2 races

Sagami Course

1200hrs  49er Men’s Skiff, 3 races
1445hrs  49erFX Women’s Skiff, 3 races

Kamakura Course

1430hrs Nacra 17 Mixed Multihull, 3 races

To follow the racing on tracker, click here.

To find out more about international broadcasters of the Sailing, click here.

For more detail from the Weather Forecast, click here.

Words by Andy Rice – World Sailing
Photography by Sailing Energy / World Sailing