No Wind and Nothing to Do in Neustadt

It's 1050 here in Nuestadt and right now it's not even possible to get the boats out to the race area for the final day of racing at the Melges 24 European Championship at Rolex Baltic Week as we have thick fog and no wind at all.

The sailors began to arrive at the regatta centre shortly after 0700 and by 0900 there was some sign of the sun beginning to break through. As you can see in our picture above it was looking very pretty with the sun on the little bay where the ducks and swans are feeding just outside the regatta centre.

Sadly in the last hour the fog has begun to close in again and there is hardly a breath of wind. All everyone can do is wait and hope. For current leader Flavio Favini the longer the wait the better, but as for his competitors, naturally everyone is desperately hoping that the wind will arrive soon so that more races can be organised before the final possible start time at 1600.

Among those praying most ardently for wind is Italy's Federico Michetti. Fed has a very strong connection with the Giorgio Zuccoli European Trophy as he was a great friend of Giorgio Zuccoli, whose family donated the trophy in memory of the legendary Melges 24 sailor. Fed was also part of Giorgio's hugely successful Melges 24 crew which won the first ever Melges 24 European Championship in 1996 and the World Championship in 2000 and he has also been the part of the winning crew for the past two Melges 24 European Championships with the Joe Fly team. This year Fed has been sailing with the new Italian Melges 24 team of Lorezo Bressani aboard Uka Uka and right now they are lying in third place, 11 points behind Favini and just 4.2 points behind second place Sandro Montefusco. Not surprisingly Fed leads the group who would like the wind to arrive soon enough to allow two races!