All Change in Marseille
The word from Justin Chisholm at the end of Saturday's racing at the SNIM in Marseille is - "RANDOM. Three races sailed in winds up to 20 knots and as low as 5 knots. In the first race the trick was to hit the left hand shore as hard a possible upwind. Downwind the shore paid again big time as boats on the left who had and initially looked good ran out of pressure. Next time round those in the wide awake club gybed before reaching the shore and made huge gains.
In the second race first beat it was hit the shore again. Downwind a huge squall on the right caught out some of the leaders who found themselves stranded in light airs on the right. For the last race a shift in the final minute of the start sequence made it massive pin bias. Downwind the beeze became more and more random with some boats becalmed and some full planing. Things got worse on the beat with the whole left and middle of the course down to a few knots and the boats on the right fully hiked. The race team took pity on the fleet by shortening at the end of the beat and sending the fleet home. Of course at this point the beeze filled in at 25 knots across the course. Like I said RANDOM!! Discards are in now and I predict a change of leader tonight. Four more races tomorrow and a forecast of less breeze." - from Justin Chisholm aboard GBR406 Team Barbarians (now lying in fifth place).
In the overall standings the second day of racing and the introduction of the discard have really shaken things up. Italy's Amadori Ezio's team aboard Bete have taken the lead on 12 points with the French Partner & Partners team in second on 18 points just one point ahead of Benjamin Cohen of Monaco aboard Sogeti Transiciel. Fourth place is held by Maurizio Cardscio's Sherekahn team on 26 points with Team Barbarians fifth on 30 points. Sixth place is a tie on 32 points between yesterday's leader Maurizio Abba aboard Alina and Paul Maxime's Marseille Big Ship Quantum.
With two more days of racing and light airs forecast we can expect plenty more thrills and spills on the waters off Marseille so stay tuned for further updates.