Tales into the lead

As Concise pick up two bullets at the Class 40 World Championship

The Spanish team on Gonzalo Botin's Tales took the lead at the Class 40 Worlds today after two windward-leewards and then a 30 mile coastal race were held in 8 to 15 knot northeasterlies. However Ned Collier-Wakefield's defending world champions on Concise 2 crew proved their worth today, scoring two bullets in the inshores.

Behind, there was equal consistency with Gonzalo Botin's Tales scoring two seconds and Thierry Bouchard's Mistral Loisirs-Pôle Santé Elior two thirds. Sam Manuard on Vecteur Plus and Thomas Ruyant on Destination Dunkerque both finished third on one race and fourth in another. The top four boats now have a nine point cushion over those behind.

While the young British crew dominated the windward-leewards, they haven't done so well on the longer races and with an eighth place in the coastal as the wind dropped they are third overall.

The coastal race was won by Tales ahead of Peter Harding's 40 Degrees and Thierry Bouchard.

“We were very efficient today, we were always first to reach the windward mark," said Botin. "This way we managed to maintain our position. The weather didn’t change much, and we sailed the same way all day. We have good opponants, we just have to keep up the good work. Our tactician, Pichu was brilliant today and we owe him our victory today”

Ned Collier Wakefield added: "The breeze - there was more wind today, it really helped to put things in motion. The boat reacted well, it’s just a shame the wind dropped later, this caused us to lose speed during the third race. There was also a wind shift which really put us out. But we’re happy, we won the first two races, it’s been a good day... it all comes down to tomorrow now.”

The forecast for tomorrow... “It’s supposed to be light winds as well, this is not the best for us because our boat doesn’t do so well with light breeze. So tonight we’re going to study the weather forecast a bit more and see what we can do tomorrow when we’re on the water. But so far it’s good, we were 5th yesterday and we won two races today, it’s a nice catching up.”

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