A statement of intent that the Global Championship crown is not to be given up without a fight.
Dawn broke with a windless, overcast sky, and a Low Pressure system positioned to the south of Sardinia bringing with it a day of, frankly, horrible weather. The competing crews were kept ashore until 1230 by Peter Craig and his team of race officials to allow some wind to fill in. It eventually did from the northwest, and at 1415 the first of two windward leeward races got underway in about 7 knots. Both courses today were two-lap courses, the first with a 1.5 nautical mile leg and the second race with a 2.2 nm leg.
Race winners were Patches who, after a moderate start position, found themselves on the correct side of a right-hand swing in the wind that saw boats on the left side of the course of the first beat under-laying the mark by some distance, and, in the second race - a much tighter affair - Artemis, who had been in second for much of the race before slipping past Mutua Madrilena (CHI) on the final run home.
Racing continues tomorrow with more windward-leeward courses and the first signal is scheduled for noon.
Weather-wise, tomorrow a more normal Porto Cervo service should resume.
Resident expert Major Filippo Petrucci forecasts that the general situation will get better with early morning clouds gradually clearing in the afternoon. The wind will remain troublesome, certainly initially, with tomorrow likely to be the transition day between a northeasterly airstream and the fabled northwesterly Mistral. 10 -15 knots in the morning could well disappear completely as the rotation to the northwest begins in the early afternoon. As the westerly starts to arrive in late afternoon from the Straits of Bonifacio, the windspeed will start to pick up again.
Petrucci is expecting the northwesterly to stay for two three days.
Current Provisional Standings
1. Patches, Eamon Conneely, IRL, 1-5-6.00 points 2. Artemis, Torbjorn Tornqvist, SWE, 6-1-7.00 3. Anonimo Q8, Riccardo Simoneschi, ITA, 4-3-7.00 4. Mutua Madrilena, Bablio Sail Project, CHI, 9-2-11.00 5. Cristabella, John Cook, GBR, 2-9-11.00 6. Mean Machine, Peter De Ridder, MON, 7-4-11.00 7. Windquest, Doug Devos, USA, 8-6-14.00 8. Glory, John Buchan, USA, 3-15-18.00 9. Cam Caja Del Mediterraneo, Leon/Sanchez, ESP, 5-14-19.00 10. Stay Calm, Stuart Robinson, GBR, 13-8-21.00
http://www.rolextp52globals2007.com
Racing in conditions more akin to his home waters of Galway Bay, Ireland, than the glamorous summer resort location of Porto Cervo, Eamon Conneely and the crew of Patches (IRL) kept their wits about them in difficult conditions to end the first day of the Rolex TP52 World Championship on top of the leaderboard, one point ahead of Torbjorn Tornqvist's Artemis (SWE).