netIP Cold Hawaii PWA World Cup

Day 1: A relaxed start to proceedings with high pressure currently dominating

With high pressure dominating the start of the 2016 netIP Cold Hawaii PWA World Cup the opening day proved to be quite a relaxed affair with the sailors registering between 10am-11am, before rigging their equipment to ensure they are ready for the competition later in the week. 

As has become tradition over the last 7 years the Mayor of Thisted Municipality — Lene Kjelgaard Jensen — officially declared the event open at 12:30pm and it is now a case of waiting for the wind and waves, which usually arrive at some point with Cold Hawaii holding a 100% record for the past 6 seasons.

Outlook for the Event

Tomorrow also looks like a lay day, but Head Judge, Duncan Coombs, believes there is the possibility of competing on Wednesday in rare starboard tack down-the-line conditions, which could provide an interesting twist and possible some surprise results — if it happens. The local Danish forecast currently predicts winds of around 8 knots — meaning there is the potential for float and ride with a few more knots of breeze as an excellent long period swell is expected (0.4m at 14 seconds).

The weekend is also starting to look promising with a new low pressure arriving, which could provide a frantic last day showdown like we saw in 2014 with Sunday currently showing winds up to 28 knots accompanied by 2-metre waves. 

Before the start of the main draw 12 sailors — listed below — will battle it out in the Qualifying Round for the remaining 4 spots.

Qualifying Round

Heat 1: Loick Lesauvage (Goya Windsurfing / Shamal Sunglasses)  vs Gustav Haggstrom (RRD / RRD Sails) vs Amado Vrieswijk (JP / Severne Sails) vs Max Droege (Sailloft Hamburg) 

Heat 2: Mads Bjørnå (Fanatic / Simmer) vs Julian Salmonn (Severne / Severne Sails) vs Sebastian Kornum (JP / NeilPryde) vs Alex Grand-Guillot (Fanatic / NorthSails)

Heat 3: Julien Taboulet (Goya Windsurfing / MFC) vs Markus Rydberg (Simmer / Simmer) vs Rasmus Oegelund (Patrik / Sailloft Hamburg) vs Julien Quentel (Patrik / Avanti)

*Winner of each heat progresses followed by 1 lucky loser, who will progress from a final heat consisting of the 2nd place finishers. 

Local boy Kenneth Danielsen (Simmer) will be hoping to replicate his performance from last year, which saw the Dane finish 6th as he used all of his extensive local knowledge to his advantage to equal his best ever result with the 32 year old also finishing 6th here in 2011. Danielsen earlier added his view on the weather forecast: “To be honest I don’t think we’ll be able to compete on Wednesday as the wind looks very light and there’s no thermal effect to help top it up. However, things can change so quickly here, so hopefully we’ll be able to gain a result here for the 7th consecutive year.”

Alessio Stillrich (Fanatic / NorthSails), currently sits in joint 13th place and will hoping for a big performance here — particularly after the 21 year old finished 2nd in last year’s Super Session and sounds like he’s well prepared coming into the event adding: “Conditions have been firing at home at the start of September with plenty of wind and waves. Plus it’s been really quiet on the water after summer, so I’m feeling pretty good.”

As previously mentioned the forecast for tomorrow looks as though the sailors will remain on hold for another day, but the skippers’ meeting will be held at 10am (GMT+1). In the event of the conditions not being suitable we’ll have interviews lined up on the PWA live stream, which you’ll be able to see by tuning into www.pwaworldtour.com. 

To see all the latest from the event — including the live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images and live ticker simply click HERE and scroll to the bottom of the page.

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