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Brits Ben Saxton/Nicola Groves are leading with some comfort the Nacra 17 European, which will run until Saturday in Barcelona. The teams sailed up to three races on the opening day of this continental event that gathers in the Barcelona International Sailing Center (BISC), in this cosmopolitan city, 42 boats from 23 countries and three different continents.
New Zealand's Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders are lying 22nd after three race son day one of the 2015 Nacra European Champs in Barcelona. They placed 17, 32, 12.
Meanwhile Aon Fast Track Squad crew Olivia Mackay and Micah Wilkinson are above them on the board in 18th improving through the day with 22, 20, 10 from their three races.
The fleet includes 42 boats representing 23 nations. Today’s oficial reports says; “It has been an intense first day with 8 to 12 knots winds from E-SE.”
After waiting on shore for around an hour, while enjoying the facilities of this innovative training centre, the fleet launched their boats for the start of the first race at 13h00. There was 10-12 knots of wind speed from the east. In the second and third race, whose starts were at 14h00 and 15h00, they had a wind speed of 8-9 knots from the SE and ESE.
British Ben Saxton/Nicola Groves showed their superiority on the first day of the championship. Saxton, who was world champion of this class in 2013 with another crew, increased his performance during the day, starting with a seventh, then a second and a final victory which allows him to be at the top of the leader board. They are now six points ahead of Spanish Fernando Echavarri and Tara Pacheco.
The Spanish team has been sailing together for not very long, but Fernando Echávarri is the last Olympic champion in tornado, an experience which he showed finishing fourth, fifth and seventh.
The 2013 world champion, who is sailing in Barcelona for the first time said: “Good day today. We had a lot of fun. It’s been the first day we’ve sailed here properly. We sailed steady”.
“The level of opponents is quite high. It makes it even better that we are doing well, is a good sign”- added Saxton. “I expect the tournament to be quite long and the competition to be tough. Nicola and I are going to try and have some fun”.
The Spanish sailor was quite pleased with the results of the first day, but admitted that there is room for improvement: "The feeling in the water was good, but the truth is that we were not very inspired in the first few upwind. We managed to recover, especially in the last race, where we were not doing very well, so we have not used the discard yet. This, in a championship like this one is very important. In any case, if there is more wind and waves we are still missing some training hours. We still feel a bit green, but in the fleet we are not doing so badly. "
Darren Bundock and Nina Curtis complete the provisional podium. The Australian team who has a total of three Olympic medals is three points behind Echavarri and Pacheco. Bundock and Curtis finished fifth, tenth and fourth.
Eight points behind the Aussies, and in fourth place, are British Lucy Macgregor/David Evans, who have been somewhat irregular: they won the first race, finished fourth in the next one and then twenty-second in the last race of the day.
The scoreboard is really tight from fourth to eleventh place, with just four points apart. Once there are two more races sailed then the first discard will be applied, so tomorrow can bring some important changes. For example, French Franck Cammas and Sophie De Turckheim are eighth after finishing third, twenty-sixth and sixth; if the discard is applied then they would probably get into the fight for the podium.
The championship is organized by the Sports Federation Union of Catalonia (UFEC) and the Catalan Sailing Federation, with the support of the Barcelona City Council, the Government of Catalonia, Barcelona Royal Yacht Club (RCNB) and the Royal Maritime Club of Barcelona (RCMB). It’s being held at the BISC until next Saturday, the last day which is reserved for the Medal Race, the grand finale where only the best ten crews will compete.
