Wind Finally Plays Ball at I-420 Worlds

San Remo, Italy (July 19, 2016) – After yesterday’s “no-race” day due to lack of wind at the I-420 World Championship, today started out with the forecast and a mirror-like race track. An early decision from the Race Committee to postpone racing until mid-afternoon was appreciated by teams who could relax and catch-up with friends around the boat park.

After a four hour delay, the Race Committee was concerned if any racing would kick off, but the breeze finally played ball and served up three races for each of the 420 Open, Ladies and U17 fleets.

A light 6-7 knots for race 1, built to around 8-9 knots, before easing back to 6 knots by the end of race three. After a morning under postponement, sitting and waiting, impressive control by the fleets with only a smattering of black flag penalties for being over the start line early. The race tracks were fairly even, with the leaders coming to the front through their skills in boat speed, clear air and spotting the pressure.

Even the locals were struggling to know what was going on with the breeze, as the old adage “It is never normally like this here,” resounded around the boat park.

420 OPEN
Featuring 110 teams from 23 nations, the 420 Open fleet is a hotbed of the world’s 420 class talent. A solid start from France’s Theo Carayon/Erwan Lucas hands them the lead from a 1,6,4 scorecard. Second to the home nation’s Riccardo Sepe/Filippo Iacchia and third to Argentina’s Fausto Cruz Peralta/Martin Arroyo Verdi (ARG). The yellow and blue fleets will be re-seeded for Wednesday’s racing.

420 LADIES
Poland’s Julia Szmit/Hanna Dzik have set the early running, in a perfect mix of youth and experience. The pair sandwiched a 5th place between two race wins in the blue fleet, to sit at the top and claim the yellow leader bibs going into race day 3.

In the yellow fleet, Jessie Kampman/Lea Sibertin-Blanc got their hands on 2 of the race wins, but it is Sofia Giondi/Giulia Gatta whose consistency put them ahead on performance in that fleet. Overall, the Italians are in second place, 3 points behind the Polish, with Francesca Russo Cirillo/Alice Linussi (ITA) in third.

The 84 team 420 Ladies fleet have been seeded into yellow and blue for the opening series, and will be re-seeded for tomorrow based on today’s results.

420 U17
Racing in a single fleet, as predicted in yesterday’s report the 68 boat Under-17 fleet was led around the track in race 1 by Violette Dorange/Camille Orion of France. Greece’s Telis Athanasopoulos Yogo/Dimitris Tassios accelarted their performance to win race 2, with sisters Carlotta Scodnik/Camilla Scodnik of Italy taking the race 3 win. Dorange/Orion continued their opening race form, to follow up with a 3,4 and claim the leader bibs.

Racing concludes on July 23.

Worlds details – Scoreboard – Facebook

The twenty-four nations competing are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Uruguay, USA.

Source: I-420 Class