THE RHODES 1997 PWA WORLD CUP

Day 1 of the Rhodes 1997 PWA World Cup and the PWA Windsurfing World Tour has moved across the Aegean Ocean from Paros to the island of Rhodes. This is the first time that the PWA World Tour has visited Rhodes and as with many new venues, it has entered the World Tour at World Cup status.

Although the Rhodes event dies not carry the heavy world championship points of the Grand Slam and Grand Prix events, many of the top names on the PWA World Tour have chosen to support the event nevertheless. No. 1# seed here is US-93 Matt Pritchard, who has moved up to no.3 in the PWA 1997 Race Ranking after Paros. S-10 Anders Bringdal is also here, along with US-933 Kevin Pritchard, KA-0 Steve Allen, S-39 Christoffer Rappe and K-66 Nik Baker.

The event site is located at Sun Beach, the closest point on the Rhodes coastline to Turkey, just 12 miles away. Local sailors say that the venturi effect caused by the funnelling of wind between Rhodes and Turkey makes this location is the windiest spot on the coastline. The side shore winds tend to build in the late morning early afternoon to an average of around 15 knots although windspeeds can be much higher.

Racing began at 12:30, in 11-15 knots of wind. The Race Director set a half fleet, upwind race, the first of three. From the start line, sailors would beat to the upwind mark, head directly across the wind to another mark on the inside before completing a downwind leg on the inside by the shore. Sailors then sailed trough a small, two buoy slalom section before crossing the finish line (the final was run as a 2 lap race).

In race 1#, their were no major shocks in the qualifying heats as KV-11 Finian Maynard, US-933 Kevin Pritchard and KC-1 Sam Ireland cruised to a place in the final. S-10 Anders Bringdal almost made a costly mistake, having led for the entire race, he began to start a second lap. Quickly realising that he was sailing the wrong course, he tacked back to finish in 9th position. In the second heat, KA-0 Steve Allen cruised to victory ahead of K-66 Nik Baker and S-39 Christoffer Rappe.

In the two lap final of race 1#, almost the entire fleet started on Starboard and headed inshore for a short leg before tacking out to sea and then back out to Starboard to lay the 1st mark. First to the upwind mark was no.1# seed, US-93 Matt Pritchard, leading from KA-0 Steve Allen and KV-11 Finian Maynard. The top three positions remained constant as the fleet rounded the leeward buoy to commence the second lap. On the second upwind, Steve Allen found a extra few percent of board speed and was able to pass Matt Pritchard to round the upwind mark in first position ahead of US-93 Matt Pritchard and KV-11 Finian Maynard. These positions remained the same until the finish and the final 1,2,3 was KA-0 Steve Allen, US-93 Matt Pritchard and KV-11 Finian Maynard.

After a 1 hour break, the second race was begun over the same course. The final of race 2# saw KV-11 Finian Maynard arrive at the upwind mark in 1st position ahead of S-10 Anders Bringdal and US-93 Matt Pritchard. Unfortunately, Maynard was disqualified from this race for starting prematurely. On the downwind leg, Maynard, oblivious to his pending DSQ led from S- 10 Anders Bringdal and KA-0 Steve Allen, who along with S-39 Christoffer Rappe had moved up past US-93 Matt Pritchard. On the second upwind, S-10 Anders Bringdal would move up into the lead ahead of US-93 Matt Pritchard, who regained his two positions ahead of Steve Allen and VI-11 Jimmy Diaz. On the final downwind, the positions remained constant with S-10 Anders Bringdal taking his first race win of the contest from US-93 Matt Pritchard and KA-0 Steve Allen in third.

In the third and final race of the day, two additional marks were added to the downwind leg of the race, giving a 4 buoy slalom at the bottom of the downwind section. The final of race 3# saw one of the most spectacular finishes seen for some time on the world tour. KA-0 Steve Allen was first to the upwind mark on the first lap, leading by a very small distance from S-39 Christoffer Rappe and S-10 Anders Bringdal. On the first downwind leg, there were several position changes with KV-11 Finian Maynard, Vi-11 Jimmy Diaz and E-9 Eduardo Bellini all fighting it out for 4th position. On the second upwind, it was S-39 Christoffer Rappe who rounded the upwind mark 1st ahead of S-10 Anders Bringdal and KA-0 Steve Allen who had fallen on his final tack and dropped back two places. Little known Dutch sailor, H-72 Rameses Landeman rounded the upwind mark in 4th position ahead of Diaz and Maynard.

On the first half of the downwind leg, S-10 Anders Bringdal closed the gap on S-39 Christoffer Rappe on every gybe. On the first mark in the slalom section it was only an excellent gybe by Rappe that kept him in first position. The next two gybes saw the two sailors separated by just half a board length and less at times as Bringdal fought to take the lead from Rappe. On the final gybe, Rappe rounded the mark just 0.5m ahead of Bringdal and both sailors crossed the finish line to loud cheers and applause from spectators and other sailors. KA-0 Steve Allen came in third ahead of H-72 Rameses Landeman and VI-11 Jimmy Diaz.

A win and two 3rd positions were enough to give KA-0 Steve Allen the overnight lead ahead of S-10 Anders Bringdal and S-39 Christoffer Rappe. However, positions are so tight that one more race may change the leaderboard significantly. Race 4 will also see the first discard come into play and either KV-11 Finian Maynard or US-93 Matt Pritchard may jump into the top 3.

The forecast is for conditions to remain good for the rest of the week, with the possibility of the some very strong winds on Sunday or Monday.