Another Day at a Beautiful Bay
Tuesday, second day of regattas, begins just like the day before, waiting for the thermal winds that rarely fail to appear in Roses. Quite a numerous group of sceptics keep nervously checking the weather forecast, while the local organising committee is confident, everyone knows that in Roses wind never misses its appointments. Indeed, at 14:00 h the first race starts, as on the previous day, with the typical Roses southeastern 7/8 knots autumnal wind, up to 11 knots in the second race.
British are collecting bullets in Radial. In Radial Apprentice, John Emmet has made a third and a first place. He leads the classification with the French Christophe Leydet 9 points behind. In the Master category, Stephen Cockerill has shown his regularity with a commanding win in both races, which gives him a total of 3 bullets in 4 races. He leads with 10 points over the German Matthias Bruehl.
More Brits on top of the standings: Max Hunt and Andrew Chapman dominate the Grand Master Radial fleet. The Italian Gabriele Loy and the French Daniel Devos are just behind and will be ready to attack the podium if the two GBR sailors don’t give their 100%...
In Standard Apprentice, the Greek 1999 Laser Radial World Champion Adonis Bourgiouris, continues on a winning streak with another first. The Spanish and current European Champion Carlos Echavarri is in second place. In third place we find another Greek, Spiros Marmarinos. A very Mediterranean podium!
In Standard Master, the Dutch Martin Koning and Lennart Cnossen are in first and second place respectively, with Koning achieving his third bullet in the third race.
Spaniard Miguel Noguer dominates the Standard Grand Master category. The Flying Dutchman Olympic Champion in the 1980 Olympics benefits from his huge experience and knowledge of the bay of Roses. The Belgian Meynendonckx and the German Gerz follow him.
In the Great Grand Masters category there are 37 competitors. Frenchman Jacky Nebrel heads the standings with 2 points of advantage over Brit Mike Kinnear. In third place is the American Peter Seildenberg, only 3 points behind.
Finally, in 4.7 class, Lesley Hotchin got also two bullets.
The sailing day finishes around 17:00 h. Happy faces all around: everybody is having a very good time. At the bar, they find a final surprise: Dutch band The Strings play life for all the competitors. A wonderful way to close a day with a fantastic atmosphere!
