In yacht racing, sailors are often at the vagaries of the wind and occasionally too much of it or too little. However on the opening day of the World Match Racing Tourโs Newport stage, crews faced a fog so thick that at times it was hard to see the bows of their M32 catamarans, let alone marks of the course.
As the banks of fog rolled through Newport Harbour and the wind fluctuating from six to 16 knots, the race officials on the course off Fort Adams, had to shoehorn in racing as and when they could.
As usual with the modern-day WMRT race format, the first two days of this event are Qualifying fleet races to determine day threeโs โSuper 16โ. Five high performance M32 catamarans are being used, so the 20-strong line-up has been divided into four groups and through patience the race committee was able complete all but two races of todayโs full schedule.
Stand-out performers of the day were New Zealandโs Chris Steele and his 36 Below Racing crew in Group1, Sally Barkowโs Team Magenta 32 in Group 2 and the Yann Guichard-skippered Spindrift racing crew from France in Group 4, none of whom finished a race lower than second.
This was particularly good for M32 newcomer New Zealandโs Chris Steele: โI am really happy with the way the guys are sailing with the boat. It was pretty tricky out there and we didnโt come close to flipping it over. We just kept it clean.โ
Steele attributed their result today to having come into this regatta fresh from last weekโs qualification event. โThat was massive in our preparation for this event. While we arenโt anywhere near some of the other top teams, coming off three days of racing is what helped this morning,โ concluded Steele.
While fog is normally associated with light or no wind, in New England you can get fog AND wind.
Executive Director of Sail Newport, Brad Read explained todayโs pea soup conditions: โGenerally this is the worst time of the year for fog because the ocean is so cold. But todayโs fog was also caused by all the moisture from the tropical system that went into the Carolinas and is why it is so humid at the moment.โ
The lack of visibility created some unique problems on the race course. โToday you couldnโt even see the reach mark,โ said Swede Stefan Rahm, whoโs boat capsized during the third race of Group 1. โYou can get a bit disorientated when you donโt see the marks, but it is not a big problem. The worst part was that you couldnโt see the boundaries. It was really hard to see where you had to tack.โ
During the first groupโs racing, the M32s were sailing under full mainsails in wind gusting to 16 knots. In this even the normally immaculate Taylor Canfield and his US One team got caught out and flipped their M32.
Coming out on top in Group 3 was GAC Pindar skipper Ian Williams, but he ended the day only a point ahead of American Michael Menningerโs 13Fifty Racing after taking not one, but two, course marks for a trawl during his groupโs final race.
Proving that the World Match Racing Tour Newport could be the occasion that the girl-power of Team Magenta prevails, American skipper Sally Barkow is ahead in Group 2. โWe are just trying to keep improving and these conditions are favourable for us.โ
Barkow is perhaps more used to racing in Newport and New England than many other crews here and noted that it was difficult to sail their M32 as they would normally, with the water and gust patterns obscured in the fog. โIt is tricky because we normally change modes on the boat with every knot change of pressure.โ
Sadly while on the water almost a full day of racing was completed, the Memorial Day holiday in Newport suffered both from occasional rain as well as the fog. However according to Brad Read, conditions are set to perk up tomorrow. โThis morning the forecasters were saying that it is going to be sunny for the next three or four days.โ
The Overall Results From Copenhagen 2016
Leaderboard
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