Typical Mediterranean

Nice sunny day, but sadly no wind for day two of the Audi MedCup's Alicante Trophy

Overcast skies gave away to fine sunshine, but capricious early season breezes off Alicante refused to co-operate to allow any racing today at the Audi MedCup's Alicante Trophy, where the GP42 class were due to make their debut.

While the 12 boat TP52 fleet (which BTW are not going to be joined by the Cristabella team with the former Matador at this regatta) did come under starter’s orders the fitful breeze collapsed and both classes spent 90 minutes floating around waiting for any improvement in the wind conditions but it never arrived and the fleet returned to the port of Alicante at the request of the race officers.

“The problem was that we had two conflicting winds, a gradient breeze and a thermal breeze and neither was strong enough to cancel the other out," assessed Maria Torrijo, Principal Race Officer. "It is a situation which happens often when there are both sun and cloud cover. We would rather have either sun or clouds.”


Such conditions are frustrating but not new to the TP52 teams as the MedCup series is hosted for the third time in as many years, but the lost races do now mean that tomorrow’s schedule has been changed. The coastal race has been put on ice meantime and instead the plan is to try and run three windward-leeward contests for both fleets. The start sequence will be advanced to facilitate racing starting just after midday instead of 1300hrs (local time).

No wind today only heightened the anxiety among the GP 42s, eager to make their Audi MedCup racing debut. They are tense because the changes made to the boats, sails and teams are still untested, and everyone is eager to see if their theories seen in simulations will reflect in the reality of speed on the race course. Some teams have changes to their hardware, some to their software, and some to both their quest for speed in this highly-competitive box-rule class.

“We were very much looking forward to racing today,” said Daniel Calero (ESP), owner and team manager of Islas Canarias Puerto Calero. “We’ve always felt strong in light air, and we think the changes we’ve made to the hull, deck layout, and keel will not compromise that but make us fast in stronger breeze as well. But, unfortunately today we have neither.”

Ashore the Audi MedCup Circuit village was visited by 54 youngsters from the local Alicante Maristas School who enjoyed the interactive displays in the Audi MedCup Expo area and seeing the TP52 and GP42 fleets at the dock.

Tomorrow stronger winds are forecast.

Overall standings after 1 race:

1. Matador (ARG) 2pts
2. Bigamist 7 (POR) 3pts
3. Marazzi Sailing (SUI) 4pts
4. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) 4 pts
5. Quantum Racing (USA) 5pts