THE RHODES 1997 PWA WORLD CUP

Day 3 of the Rhodes 1997 PWA World Cup began with a later, 12:00 skippers meeting after the very late finish of the previous day's racing. The early wind-indicators looked very good with a clearly visible windline around 4km offshore. The sailors remained in standby, waiting for the windline to move in. The race crew went onto the water and set a 4 gybe slalom course, an 8man heat seeding was prepared.

At 14:00, the wind eventually built to 13-15 knots and the sailors prepared to begin race 7# as a downwind slalom race at 14:15. Frequent holes in the wind forced the Race Director to postpone for several 15 minute intervals. At 15:00, the wind appeared unlikely to remain above the slalom wind limit and so the discipline was altered to upwind course racing.

The course for race 7# was similar to that used yesterday with a 4 buoy slalom section located directly in-front of the crowds on the beach. The upwind and wing marks were not set as far upwind today in an attempt to shorten the lap time from 10 minutes to 7 minutes.

S-10 Anders Bringdal was first to the upwind mark, with a small lead, ahead of K-66 Nik Baker and S-39 Christoffer Rappe who were neck and neck. Finian Maynard rounded the upwind mark in 4th position ahead of VI-11 Jimmy Diaz and E-9 Eduardo Bellini. On the second upwind, the seemingly invincible Anders Bringdal extended his lead further still and romped home into 1st position. Second and third position however was very hotly contested and is still the subject of a protest. Christoffer Rappe and Nik Baker both arrived at the first slalom buoy at the same time. Nik Baker initiated his gybe first and Christoffer Rappe then chose to attempt to gybe inside him. Baker is claiming that he was forced to stall his gybe, thus allowing Rappe through to finish second. Rappe claims that Nik left a gap, there was plenty of room to gybe inside and there was no contact. The protest committee have taken the unusual step of allowing video evidence into this hearing due to the seriousness of the outcome's effect on the results. Viewers of WORLD WINDSURFING will be able to see the incident when the Rhodes event is aired in September.

Race 8# was run back-to-back with race 7#, with the only course change, a 100m increase in the first beat. S-39 Christoffer Rappe was first to the upwind mark ahead of KA-0 Steve Allen and K-66 Nik Baker. S-10 Anders Bringdal rounded the upwind mark in 4th position ahead of VI-11 Jimmy Diaz and KC-1 Sam Ireland. At the downwind section, Rappe had extended his lead further over KA-0 Steve Allen. S-10 Anders Bringdal began to move up the fleet, passing K-66 Nik Baker to move into 3rd position. On the second upwind there were several place changes. KA-0 Steve Allen dropped way down from 2nd to 8th and the Pritchard brothers, Matt and Kevin cruised up from around 10th to 5th and 6th position.

At the finish of race 8# S-39 Christoffer Rappe took the victory, his second of the contest, ahead of S-10 Anders Bringdal and K-66 Nik Baker. VI-11 Jimmy Diaz crossed the line in 4th position ahead of the Pritchard brothers, Matt and Kevin.

During Race 8#, the wind built to 15-18 knots and so after race 8#, the course was re-set to the original downwind slalom of the morning. The seeding was altered to 16man heats and race 9# started at 17:45. After several delays for general recalls and sailors competing in the incorrect heat , race 9# was postponed overnight due to fading light and wind conditions.

There are no major surprises or premature starts so far from race 9# and the final 4 heats will be completed tomorrow.

source: SSM Freesports/ Dan Atkins