The Gods of the wind and the sea were dozing in this early autumn: in an anemic zephyr, the eighty-one classic yachts struggled to shake off in a feeble flow from South to Southeast at 3 to 5 knots.
It was difficult to find the right vein of breeze to reach the first mark of this triangular course (originally) in the bay of La Napoule! So much so that the entire fleet found itself packed off the Barbier point, to the west of Saint-Honorat Island…
But it was finally the 23m JI Cambria that made a getaway to take the lead widely in real time when the Race Committee decided to shorten the course in front of Saint-Marc point, at the foot of Théoule-sur-Mer…
Following in its wake were only the 15m JI Mariska and a few perseverant ones who managed to scrape meter by meter the fathoms they needed to round the first buoy. A buoy drowned under a leaden blanket, with not a brave breath, which some took hours to circle. Because once the mark was overtaken, the zephyr picked up a bit of vigor for a long spinnaker leg toward the finish of this shortened course.
On the Juan Gulf side, the weather was not more favorable for chaining the races! This feeble breeze was putting the nerves of the Dragon crews to the test, and the Race Committee found itself forced to shorten the race in favor of the Russian Annatoly Loginov (Annapurna) pursued by Briton Yvan Bradbury (Blue Haze), thus solidifying his leadership in the overall ranking cumulated over three races, and Frenchman Alain Lathioor (Révolte).
This allowed for a bit of clarity before a third day on Wednesday which will provide more insight when the worst score is removed from the points total…
But already, the Top Ten standings seem to be contested only among the top fifteen out of the forty-four Dragons present in Cannes!
As for the 5.5mJI and the Tofinou, they too only benefited from a single cannon shot: a challenging race in these unpredictable conditions where catching a breeze was as complex as finding a needle in a haystack… Of the five contenders, Swiss Andreas Dyhk Petersen (Otto) extricated himself the best from this too-calm body of water among the Metriques, while the Briton Edward Fort (Pippa), a regular at the Régates Royales-Trophée Panerai, relegated the three French crews to the back of his Tofinou 9.5.
Weather conditions are expected to be more cooperative this Wednesday with the dissipation of a stormy area over Mercantour, this looming mass that has been…
