After the light winds opening day for the Gaastra 52 World Championship off Miami Beach Day 2 seems to promise more breeze but it is likely to be at least as challenging again for the tacticians as the wind direction will be mainly offshore.
Factor in the expectation of a front passing though during the day and it does look like a set of races when maximum observation – heads out of the boat – will be vital.
Azzurra were the class act on the first day with a second and first which means they head out on to the water with a lead of four points over Quantum Racing while Rán Racing and Gladiator are tied on eight points, poised only one point behind Doug De Vos’ team.
Juan Vila (ESP), the navigator of Quantum Racing (USA) explains what he expects the weather to do:
We probably did not do our first beats so well yesterday but we are happy that we could manage to have some decent results at the end of each race. We managed to get in phase with the shifts and then we could sail in free air and pick up our timings to our tacks and so on. The boat is fast in these conditions as well and we managed to have a little comeback in each race.
It is a different day. We expect a front coming through, so SW’ly initially some medium strength around 15kts or 10-15 and then as the front comes through it should shift to the NW, so different to yesterday and a little more breeze.
We are looking forwards to every different kind of conditions today. Seas will be flatter today, we will happy to see how the boat behaves in these conditions.
Juan Vila (ESP), navigator of Quantum Racing (USA)
Phipp Hallowell (USA), trimmer on Interlodge (USA) which took a 4,7 yesterday to lie seventh recalls :
Yesterday was not great for us, but we feel like we’ll get things today and have some better results. The increase in breeze we feel is also better for us.
Phipp Hallowell (USA), trimmer on Interlodge (USA)
And Ralf Steitz (USA), Gaastro Pro’s afterguard explains how their crew mix is working out:
We have a great group of guys put together for this week from the US and Holland, we’re really coming together as a team, and its great to be here. Thanks to Quantum we have some competitive sails to use, and we are learning about them every day, so we expect to get better and better to push these other guys around the race course.
Ralf Steitz (USA), Gaastro Pro
