Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: Despite conditions looking very marginal on Saturday morning at Almouj, throwing up concerns about whether there would be any action at all out on the water at the GC32 Championship, four races were held in swift succession, and a fifth nearly completed too, before the wind finally faded.
The inaugural GC32 Championship, being run by the GC32 International Class Association in association with OC Sport, is once again turning into a battle of the Kiwi helmsmen. Overall leader Oman Air, on which Match Racing World Champion Phil Robertson has been appointed skipper this season, won two of Saturday’s four races but the team increased their lead only by three points, to seven.
Gunning impressively hard for the local Omani team is Jes Gram-Hansen and RasmusKostner’s SAP Extreme Sailing Team, helmed by another Kiwi former Match Racing World Champion, Adam Minoprio.
The Danish team won the day’s opening race, which took place in 9-10 knots. When the wind dropped temporarily in the middle of the day, they showed particularly good pace downwind.
As Minoprio explained: “As soon as we feel we can foil, we go for it - whereas everyone else stayed in displacement mode. We were sailing 30° hotter, but going 8 knots faster...”
Generally Minoprio feels that the cards haven’t fallen his way this week: On Wednesday, the Danish team was one of three to fall to the black flag, causing them to be awarded maximum points for one race. Then on Saturday they were leading the final race when, the wind disappeared and it had to be abandoned having exceeded the permitted time limit for races of 35 minutes.
“That was a crucial race as there were eight points there between us and Oman Air, and that would have made us equal,” observed Minoprio. “Tomorrow beating them is do-able. If we get some good breeze we might see the boats split up some more...”
If the starts in Saturday’s windward-leeward races perhaps weren’t quite as high octane as the reaching starts, one crew was still trying to keep the adrenaline pumping. The newly-formed Tawera Racing of Kiwis Chris Steele and Graeme Sutherland, attempted port tack starts in two races, managing to pull off this brave manoeuvre, normally reserved for more manageable dinghies, in the opening race, during which they came home third.
Unfortunaely they followed this up with two deep results, one the result of being called over early and being obliged to return and restart.
“In the other, we went the wrong way and made a couple of wrong decisions,” admitted Steele.“If you are out in front you have all the options in the world and it’s really nice. Once you’re at the back which gate you go to and which side of the course can be dictated to you.”
Regarding the day’s windward-leeward courses, Steele felt that they made the racing tighter for longer, and created more lead changes.
Roman Hagara’s Red Bull Sailing Team seemed to be going better which the Austrian team’s skipper partly attributed to moving Will Tiller, the Kiwi in his crew, into a tactical role.
The change seems to be working as Red Bull Sailing Team were second highest scoring team of the day after Oman Air. They also won the day’s third race.
“It was very close with four boats all the time,” recounted Hagara, the double Olympic Tornado champion. “We made a good start and we were together with the other three around the top mark, but it was down to good positioning in the end and we had a good run into the finish with the boats behind. It felt better generally today.”
As to the Kiwi dominance at the GC32 Championship, Hagara observed: “We’ll have to take them skiing in Austria – then we’ll see!”
They have yet to win a race, but a team showing supreme consistency at this GC32 Championship is Ernesto Bertarelli’s two time America’s Cup winners, Alinghi. The Swiss crew came very close to winning a race on Saturday and continue to hold a solid third place overall.
Crewman Yves Detrey felt they’d had some missed opportunities: “We had two good races and in one we had a knot in the gennaker sheet and we missed a gybe and got passed by two or three boats.”
As to what was making the difference Detrey observed: “Being able to change gears:Foiling or non-foiling, and if we are not foiling whether it is high mode or low mode and looking out for the wind. You were playing the shifts and pressure a lot more.”
The inaugural GC32 Championship will conclude on Sunday.
