Rooster Topper World Championships at Le cercle nautique de Loctudy - Day 2
by Michelle Hill, ITCA 27 Jul 2017 01:02 PDT
24-28 July 2017
Day two (Tuesday) of the Rooster Topper World Championships and a completely different set of conditions faced the competitors with a lighter wind and a more noticeable tidal current. This was the day for those who may not have had such a perfect start to the competition, to try to grab back a few places before entering day the final days qualification stages on Wednesday.
The racing once again started promptly at two o'clock and on the 5.3 fleet yellow were the first to progress up the first beat. From the outset, the day had the promise of being both patchy and shifty with the 'first to the gust wins' strategy being the order of the day. With only one general recall for the blue fleet, and two for the red, all boats were soon racing for what was to be another exiting day on the water.
The races on the 5.3 fleet progressed well with the wind and chop steadily increasing as the day went on, this now seeming to be a daily characteristic of the area. Tide today was a key issue on the race course and a large amount of the fleet over-laid the mark significantly showing just how much a factor tide is to the strategy on the race course.
The 4.2 fleet also had three good races today with only minor wind shifts on their course to look out for. The two flights followed one another in rapid succession and soon had three more races under their belt. In the initial stages, they had slightly more wind than the 5.3 course which similarly increased as the day went on.
At the end of racing for the 5.3s, (prior to the usual smorgasbord of protests and black flags being applied) overall it was the girls who were now calling the shots with the Isabel Wallwork in first place, Jenna McCarlie in second and Milly Jinks in third.
In the 4.2 fleet Seam Woodard is in first, Ben Purrier in second, and Xinran Chen in third.
Another good day for race management and much swapping of positions on the leaderboard.