Catalunya PWA World Cup
Day four saw the usual wall-to-wall sunshine replaced by menacing black clouds and heavy rain, which kept the sailors off the racing course for second day in a row. By the evening the sun did start to re-emerge but with no sign of the wind increasing the fleet were released at 5pm and attention now turns towards the weekend, which should see the return of the wind.
With the majority of the sailors seeking cover from the rain we grabbed a few quick words in between showers with Matteo Iachino (Fanatic / North), Pierre Mortefon (Fanatic / North) and Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard / Severne):
Iachino currently lies second in the event rankings after a fine opening race, but is keeping a level head: “The first day was quite nice racing with 15 knots on the course from the normal thermal direction here. Every heat was pretty tough, but I managed to make the final. In the final I wanted to start by the pin because the start was kind of pin biased, but then I saw Arnon below me and we’d been having a big fight already so I thought somebody might go over early and decided to start above him. It was pretty close for the whole race, but he was gybing sick so I couldn’t pass and it finished as we were. Arnon might be out of the next round, but he could get a discard and things could go good or bad for me, so anything can happen.”
Pierre Mortefon took an earlier than anticipated exit from the first race, but there is an explanation behind it: “10 seconds before the start of the quarterfinals I had a problem with my harness line on port tack. Anyway I took the start with my broken harness line and managed to make it to the first mark in third place, but after the third buoy my arms were burned out and I missed out on the qualifying places. It’s not a great result, but hopefully the thermal wind arrives for the weekend and we get chance to gain a discard - that would be perfect for me.”
Cyril Moussilmani looking to kick on after finishing 11th in the opening elimination: “On the first day of racing I managed to make it into the losers’ final - finishing 3rd behind Josh [Angulo] and Julien [Quentel]. The forecast looks better for the weekend so we expect some wind and hopefully we can have some good quality races.”
The forecast for the weekend looks promising and with a bit of luck there should be wind over the two remaining days. The skippers’ meeting has been called for 10:30am tomorrow morning with the action commencing from 11am. Don’t miss any of the action by tuning into www.pwaworldtour.com.