Marignane PWA World Cup
The waiting game continued on the penultimate day of the 2019 Marignane PWA World Cup as the light winds continued. A squall shortly after 1:45pm caused a flurry of action on the beach with the wind quickly picking up to 30 knots, but unfortunately the wind did not stick around for long.
During the afternoon Taty Frans (Future Fly / Point-7), Adam Sims (Patrik / Sailloft Hamburg) and Diony Guadagnino (AHD / Loftsails) put on a tow-in Freestyle show to entertain the crowds.
During the afternoon we caught up with Bruno Martini (I-99 / Challenger Sails), who booked his place in the semi-finals yesterday after winning his quarterfinal ahead of Ethan Westera (Tabou / GA Sails), Antoine Albeau (JP / NeilPryde) and Mateus Isaac (JP / NeilPryde).
Hi Bruno, how was your winter training?
“My training was really good. I spent 2 months in Tenerife where the training level was really high. We trained in both flat and choppy water and I feel like I improved a lot. I feel better and confident on my equipment - no matter whether it’s light or really strong wind."
Yesterday you won your quarterfinal - how happy were you with your performance?
"I’m really happy about that actually because it’s the beginning of the season and it’s nice to start in a good way being in the semifinals. The conditions were tricky, so it was not easy to race yesterday and it’s easy to get a bad result in one second, but on the flip side you can gain a really good result also."
There's been a lot of waiting around for wind this week - how do you stay relaxed, but also focused for racing?
“I’ve been thinking about this a lot when I was training and the problem is not gybing, starting or racing, but it’s actually about how I can use less energy at events and be able to stay focused when I need to. Now, I’m just trying to switch off my mind at certain times, relax and joke around a bit with some friends. I try to trust in the hours of training of put in and know that I am prepared to race. I just focus on myself and not what the others are doing. Then when the call is made that we are going to race I just try and switch my mind back on and focus on the job at hand.”
There's only one day left of the contest - you must be praying for wind now with a top 16 spot guaranteed in the first elimination?
“Yeah, this is a good question… personally I really hope that we can finish this elimination. I feel really good and feel like I can make it into the final and record a great result. On the other hand I know that this is only one elimination over one week and some guys will say that this doesn’t really count, but everything counts and we’ll see at the end of the season where I am. This is a marathon, not a sprint!”
Do you have an aim for the season?
“Not really, I just want to sail to the best of my ability and then we’ll see how it works out.”
Thanks, Bruno.
All the eggs are now in one basket with Monday offering the final roll of the dice to gain a result. The latest forecast models offer a chance to race late in the afternoon, but the wind is once again forecast to be offshore, which is the same as we’ve had for the whole week thus far. Hopefully, this time around it fills in. The sailors will meet for the skippers’ meeting at 8:30am tomorrow morning with the action commencing from 9:30am (GMT+2) - onwards.
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