London 2012 Olympic medallists have joined the sailing party
THE big Wednesday certainly materialised at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week yesterday. Racing was abandoned for the White Group smaller boats because of the wind, so unfortunately there was no sailing for them. This was not a popular decision among those who wanted to take the conditions on.
As a consequence, results have remained the same after day five and the current overall winner for the White Group, Ziva, from the Victory class keeps a clean score card of four wins.
The Black Group, the big boats, started racing yesterday in a wet wind. While all sailors are used to getting wet, rain is just an unpleasant distraction which comes with unstable winds and big changes in strength, so it is tough to get tactics right.
If I was racing in such conditions I would do my best to ignore the rain and get on with it; even though it’s windy, every second counts. One bad manoeuvre will have made the difference between winning and coming second.
People watch today includes a number of the successful British Olympic Team. Silver medallist Zara Phillips will fire the start gun at the Royal Yacht Squadron for the annual Artemis Challenge round the Island race. Racing on board the boats for the 50-mile sprint will be silver and bronze medallist Nick Dempsey, and the women’s Match Racing team.
Sarah Gosling is a double gold medal-winning former Olympic sailor.