Sean O’Brien reports from day five in Costa Brava…
Day five of the Costa Brava World Cup was the slowest start on record with perfect weather for tanning on the beach: brutal sun and zero wind! The major change to the event was the start of the weekend and an extra few thousand Spaniards hitting the beach for the sun and our campsite hitting capacity – a few hundred people scrounging chairs all around our sails rigged up on the grass! I don’t think any of us even LOOKED at the beach till the first breath of wind started to hit around 3pm and racing was set for a 3.30pm start!
Light, crossshore winds made the starts super difficult and I got bumped in my quarter final with Benoit Moussilmani in a RIDICULOUS decision, where the wind dropped to almost nothing with 10 seconds to go and I drifted over the line not even in the straps or harness – the race should have been abandoned! Argghhh. The re-run of my quarter final (with only six men left) ended up being abandoned two more times before the wind finally settled and the rest of the heats were able to be run.
Julien Quentel decided to shine today and blitzed every heat he was in and then stormed to victory in the winner’s final even passing the event leader Bjorn Dunkerbeck on the second run and even the classy winner’s final fleet could not reign back his lead – a well deserved victory and bringing Quentel up to 2nd overall on the scoresheet.
Round 6 was started a few minutes after this winner’s final but as quickly as the wind came late this afternoon it disappeared again and only one heat was sailed before everyone in Heat two had to drift back to the beach and racing was cancelled for the day. The forecast for tomorrow looks grim so most of us were keen to hit the bar tonight to drown our sorrows and the boys in the Jersey-Shore hut of mine got the party arrangements going early, hosting a little soiree for half the fleet with Kiani and myself playing DJ on the laptops and blasting some SKRILLEX throughout the campsite, much to the distaste of the Spanish campers around us!
Only one final day of racing tomorrow and with the lame forecast it’s doubtful we might even finish this final Round to cap off the event! Stay tuned tomorrow to find out!
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