14 knot gale

Danes into the fore on windiest day of 49er racing in Athens

Michael Hestbaek and Dennis Dengso raced off to a 57 second victory in the windiest heat of the 49er Olympic Regatta today. With the easterly wind topping out at around 14 knots, it wasn’t really that windy, but it must have seemed like a gale compared with the woefully light breezes that have dogged this event so far.

The Danes banged the right hand corner of the first beat, hooked into a useful windshift and stretched a five second lead at Mark 1 to 57 seconds by the finish. The race officer set the first three-lap course of the week, which was just as well for the British team who needed all three laps to recover from 14th at the first mark to 4th by the finish. Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks sailed into the left corner of the first beat, accompanied by the Aussies, and found themselves left behind by the favourable breeze that was suiting the Danes so nicely on the right.

The Spanish team also had a useful climb from 6th at the first mark to take second at the finish, and Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez now have 9 points in hand on the Brits and Ukrainians in joint second place. Rodion Luka and George Leonchuk gave away their overnight lead on the fleet by suffering the exact reverse of the Brits, falling from 4th at Mark 1 to 14th by the finish.

The trouble for a lot of teams that this was the first decent breeze they have had the chance to sail for almost a month, so light was the build-up to Athens as well as the early stages of the regatta. The Brazilians, who had looked so dangerous in the light, fell out of the medal zone today when they capsized on a gybe-drop around a congested leeward mark. And Chris Nicholson and Gary Boyd, the Aussies who had done such a good job over the past couple of days, reverted to their early-series habits by picking up a 360 penalty and finishing 18th just behind the Brazilians.

The sailors were relieved just to have had a race in decent conditions, although there was more waiting around for the wind to settle. This regatta has been characterised by lots of sitting around in the boat park, tough both in terms of coping with the oppressive heat in Athens and tough mentally. The 49er regatta was meant to be a one-day-on, one-day-off arrangement, but endless delays and postponements have meant the 19 teams have had just one rest day so far.

There are rumours of the strong and gusty Meltemi coming in tomorrow for the three scheduled races, but although it was predicted for today the Meltemi didn’t really materialise. Sailors have long given up on taking too much notice from weather forecasts, but a Meltemi would make a fascinating and adrenaline-charged showdown to the 49er contest.