Cian maintains lead

Miriam Torres reports on a day of fickle conditions at the World Match Racing Championship

Today the breeze was light again, reaching 7-8 knots for the first start. After the third flight the wind had dropped to about 4 knots which sent the Race Committee searching for the breeze all around the Bay of Calpe until 18:00. Finally the first start of the fourth flight got under way just a stone's throw from the beach. Due to the problems the boats experienced yesterday that reduced the fleet to four, the program is behind schedule with eight flights still to be raced.

In the first match Paolo Cian (ITA) led, chalking up another point by beating Bjorn Hansen. The Swede couldn’t do anything against the impeccable Italian team who is making precious few mistakes. Although the start was even, Cian chose the left side of the beat and at the first cross he had the advantage.

In the following match, Santiago Lopez-Vazquez (ESP) was left standing against Ian Williams (GBR), who won the start and held the lead to the finish. Philippe Presti (FRA) the ISAF World Ranking number 1 and Peter Gilmour (AUS), went head to head in the next match. Presti was dealt a penalty during a f renetic pre-start, and Gilmour proceeded to sail away from him. Some confusion on the Race Committee boat regarding a change mark led to Presti lodging a Red Flag protest but there was no redress forthcoming and Gilmour sailed on to victory.

Presti and Cian started the second flight of the day. At the start, Cian rolled immediately into a covering tack and dominated the race to win by a comfortable margin.

In the next match Spithill took on the reigning World Champion, Ed Baird. The Australian started well against Baird, and sailed well to build a good lead on the first leg and there was nothing the American could do to avoid Spithill adding his third point to the score card.

In the following match, Iain Williams gave a lesson in magistral match racing in the pre-start. The 28 year old British sailor cleanly beat Gilmour. The Australian match race veteran is having a tough regatta and needs to pull out all the stops if he is to make the semi-finals.

Third flight of the day just had two matches. In the first one Richard notched up a point by beating James Spithill. Then it was Sebastian Col’s turn to get another point on the board after beating Baird.

After a long postponment due to light wind, the next flight up, flight 4 had Spithill, Col and Baird beating Nevgodnikov, Lindberg and Richard respectively.

In the last flight of the day Spithill, Baird and Richard, beat Presti, Williams and Hansen respectively.

Commenting on the days racing Paolo Cian said: “today we sailed just two races, with very light breeze. We won the first race against Hansen and then the second one against Phillipe Presti, the second helmsman of Luna Rossa, we beat them from the start and kept the position the whole race, so we are very happy for that. We have six wins out of six races, so we are pleased with the results. We are sailing better than we thought in the beginning. We really have a good feeling with the boat and with the conditions here in Calpe. We won a Grade 1 event in Italy in July with those boats, the Tom 28, so we are very confident. We are just in the round robin, so it’s still early to talk about finals or semi-finals.

"About my absence from the America’s Cup, when there are three Italian teams challenging, I only can say that two of those teams, +39 and Luna Rossa, prefered to have non Italians at the helm, so what else can I say?”

Round robin - day three

Flight 1
Cian beat Hansen
Williams beat López-Vázquez
Gilmour beat Presti
Flight 2
Cian beat Presti
Spithill beat Baird
Williams beat Gilmour

Flight 3
Richard beat Gilmour
Col beat Baird

Flight 4
Spithill beat Nevgodnikov
Col beat Lindberg
Baird beat Richard

Flight 5
Spithill beat Presti
Baird beat Williams
Richard beat Hansen

Overall results:

PAOLO CIAN (ITA), 6 pts (6 matches)
SEBASTIEN COL (FRA), 5 pts (7 matches)
JAMES SPITHILL (AUS), 5 pts (8 matches)
IAN WILLIAMS (GBR), 4 pts (6 matches)
MATHIEU RICHARD (FRA), 4 pts (6 matches)
EVGENY NEUGODNIKOV (RUS), 4 pts (8 matches)
ED BAIRD (USA), 3 pts (7 matches)
PETER GILMOUR (AUS), 3 pts (7 matches)
STAFFAN LINDBERG (FIN), 3 pts (7 matches)
BJORN HANSEN (SWE), 3 pts (8 matches)
PHILIPPE PRESTI (FRA), 2 pts (5 matches)
SANTI LÓPEZ-VÁZQUEZ (ESP), 1 pts (9 matches)

More photos on the following pages...