SOMWR Movement 10 x Marignane PWA Grand Slam
Day three of the SOMWR Movement 10 x Marignane PWA Grand Slam started with plenty of optimism with an early skippers’ meeting been called for both the Wave & Freestyle fleets in Carro. However, it soon became apparent that the wind was too offshore to be suitable for either disciple, so the decision was quickly made to release the Wave fleet, whilst the Freestyle sailors would head back to Le Jai.
Upon arriving back in Le Jai conditions looked as though there could be some potential, but unfortunately by the time the sailors had rigged the wind had already dropped, so much so that by the time it was time for the Slalom skippers’ meeting the wind was also too light for foiling with the wind often dropping to 3 knots.
Around midday there was a flurry of action on the beach with the wind picking up slightly, which prompted several sailors to hit the water. Racing was proposed to start at 12:30pm, but unfortunately the wind quickly dropped back again for the remainder of the day.
With the main focus so far being on playing the waiting game we caught up with a few sailors throughout the day to gain their thoughts thus far:
Marion Mortefon (Fanatic / Duotone / LOKEFOIL): "It's been another long day of waiting. I don't think anyone was thinking that with the forecast that we had for today that we would end the day with no races. Let's see how the rest of the week plays out. Normally the forecast would suggest some foiling days, but as today shows you just never know. Lets hope we get to go on the water tomorrow."
Jordy Vonk (Fanatic / Duotone): “It’s unlucky as today it looked like we had a good forecast. We were actually more thinking about whether it would be Slalom and then Freestyle or vice-versa because the forecast looked solid on paper, so of course it’s very disappointing in the end. Fingers crossed. I’ll try and stay positive - it would be unbelievable if we are here for 10 days and we don’t even get lucky enough for conditions with big sails and big foils.”
Maciek Rutkowski (FMX Racing / Challenger Sails): “It looks like there’s going to be a lot of waiting from the forecast and obviously we’ll be the ones mainly on standby (Slalom) as we really don’t need much wind to compete. Today is teased us two or three times with little 10 minute patches where it was maybe borderline race-able. It looks like it’ll be a long week, but we really don’t need much, so fingers crossed that we’ll get something.”
Basile Jacquin (FMX Racing / Point-7): “It was windy this morning until around maybe 11am, but then it turned completely offshore with zero wind for an hour. There were a few little gusts but sadly not enough. I’m from New Caledonia, but I live in Almanarre, which is about 1 and half hours from here. Sometimes we come here with the Federation if it’s not windy in Almanarre. Usually here is a pretty good place for windsurfing, but so far in both PWA events here we’ve been unlucky. Normally it’s a wind machine here.”
The outlook for tomorrow looks slightly lighter than today, but with some rain expected there may also be a few squalls around. The Slalom and Freestyle fleets will meet on Monday morning at 9am - with action a first possible start of 9:30am for the Freestyle and 10am for the racers. The wave fleet will also receive a call at 9am tomorrow morning, but this will be given out online.