7th WUC Match Racing – Day 1 of Competitions

LAGO DI LEDRO – Day 1 has been a quiet day, which saw the first round of races at the 7th World University Match Racing Championship on Lake Ledro. Good weather conditions, with a shining sun and a steady wind in the morning hours, followed by a brief calm at noon and then again a good ventilation in the afternoon, ranging from 4 to 7 knots, with a short burst of rain that has interrupted for a few minutes the regattas. 43 matches were realized yesterday 30 June.

Although it is still too early to make any predictions, some teams can boast victories in relation to different classifications. In the Open category, the Australians dominated, with three victories on the boat AUS1 (helmed by Samuel Gilmour) and three others on the boat AUS2 (helmed by Jay Griffin). Also in the same category, the USA crew performed well, winning three races on the boat skippered by Nevin Snow.  Singapore2 (helmed by Sean Lee) and Japan (Kohel Ichikawa) clocked also three victories. Excellent performance also of the Italian crews, winners of four matches on the boat ITA1 (Valerio Galati) and a victory for the boat ITA2 (Sandro Cavallari). In the Female category, for the moment the best results are those obtained by the crews of France (with Pauline Courtois) and Singapore (with Denise Lim), both with two wins. 

All things quiet until match nr. 25, while three red flags were raised after the finish of the matches N° 26, 30, 36, respectively, for games between the teams CAN2 and POL, GBR and AUS2, RUS and GBR1. No black flag was raised on the other hand this first day of racing.
Some damage has finally been registered to the boats.

On the shores of Lake Ledro, ‘Skip’ Lissiman, a winner of the 1983 America’s Cup, is a delegate for Australia. ‘In 2016, the WUC Match Racing will be held in our country and I took the opportunity to come and take a look and see how the event is organized here. It must be said that from the competitive point of view on this lake the match between the teams is very interesting because the teams do not know the weather conditions, they do not know how winds move. The athletes must be very fast, think about how to move in harmony, as if they were a single person. The winners will be those who will sail as crews showing great feeling and intuition, thinking as one, having an eye on the constantly changing wind, its directions, following the reflections of the light on the waters.’ When asked for a prediction, Lissiman put forward the Australian team, winners of the previous edition in Nice. ‘The current title holders are surely among the favorites: they are strong and have Gilmour among their helmsmen (Ranking 24). The European teams are favorites too, as they know the best techniques of navigation on inland and alpine lakes like here.’

(Source: Paola Malcotti, WUCOC)

RESULTS DAY 1

Day 1