A time for consolidation, or improvements?

Another day of offshore breezes, blowing from the NW and veering to the N, promises Day 3 of the Gaastra 52 World Championships will be another challenging one for the eight teams competing.

As we will pass the theoretical half way point of the series today it appears as if the three top teams have already stepped slightly clear, and so for the others who are aspiring to finish on the podium come Saturday, they need to step up their game with a clutch of better scores from today.

Meantime there are just three points between the top three teams.

Rán Racing lead by one point from Azzurra who are in turn just one point ahead of Quantum Racing.

There might be up to three races today, indeed that would be the intention, but the winds do look to be dying slightly from 10-12kts early on, to 7-9 in the later afternoon.

It will be pretty tricky weather for the day because it is blowing offshore, a NW’ly breeze, very shifty which is what we need but a good, moderate sailing wind and everyone on board is looking forwards to today.
Wouter Verbraak, navigator on Gaastra Pro believes

And their tactician John Cutler adds:

We are hoping it is a shifty day, since we’re just a little off the pace from the newer boats and need some wind shifts to help bring us even with them. Yesterday we had some mechanical problems with the winch system, but hope they are sorted now for the rest of the week.
John Cutler

Rio’s owner-helm Manouch Moshayedi sums up their regatta so far:

We have had some great opportunities so far this week, and still need to put everything together for some good results. This is fantastic high-level sailing on great boats, and yet it is still accessible without needing an all-pro team: most of our team are amateurs, yet we are still in the hunt. I think there is a perception out there that this is a pro-only game, and this is simply not true.
Rio’s owner-helm Manouch Moshayedi