The pressure cooker penultimate day

It’s the penultimate day of the Laser World Championships and in both senses the pressure is building nicely. Out on Hayling Bay there was already 13-14kts of ESE’ly breeze and the promise of some brisk gusts by afternoon.

After the rash of black flags yesterday there are a number of sailors who will be on a knife edge today, notably Paul Goodison and Michael Bullot who both need to be digging very deep to try and get their title challenges back on track. Theirs might seem like a big ask, but who would have predicted that all three top challengers would by DSQ’d from the first race yesterday. On paper Tom Slingsby does seem to have a little breathing space, 13pts, at the top of the leaderboard still, but he is more than a little exposed with a BFD lurking in his locker. His goal today will be to return a pair of consistent top 10-12 scores and stay out of trouble.

The Junior Worlds fleet heads out on to the water today knowing that Italy’s Francesco Marrai has set the bar high through the qualifying series to lead into the four race finals by ten points.

The forecast today shows some very subtle variations on the theme which has prevailed through the regatta so far. We start with the breeze from ESE and it is forecast to be a little more settled in direction. Forecast wind speed is up to 16 knots, but locals were talking this morning of expecting to see puffs over 20, so the scene is set nicely for these worlds to reach a crescendo over the next 48 hours.
 

4/9/2010 11:50