A thunderstorm warning over Lake Traunsee temporarily halted racing for the 46 strong fleet at the Platu 25 World Championship in Gmunden, Austria. Yet three races were completed with Italian Sandro Montefusco on top ahead of two Spanish crews.
The first race started with a good eight knots at the beginning but, during the last leg to the line, the breeze dropped so dramatically that most of the fleet could not finish.
Victory went to the Spanish team of
GAES Mundomarino, skippered by Francisco Sanchez Ferrer who profited from this result to climb back to the top part of the scoreboard, seriously threatening the Italian crew of
Euz II skippered by Montefusco who got in second ahead of German champion Kyra helmed by Lars Bähr.
As the crews were preparing for the second start a thunderstorm warning forced the Race Committee to hoist a postponement flag and to send the boats back ashore for safety reasons. Luckily enough the storm was quickly over and racing resumed at 15:00 local time.
The second race of the day was sailed with a wind that topped nine knots max. Ideal conditions for the Platu 25 fleet, especially for the Spanish sailors. The victory went to
Vilagarcia helmed by
Bernardo Paz (ESP) followed by
Cormedia-Coppel Dental skippered by Jose Manuel Perez (ESP). Crossing the line in third was French on
Black Flag led by Christophe Chaffardon.
Later in the afternoon the Committee started the third and last race of the day. Spanish team of
GAES Mundo Marino confirmed their excellent condition with another win, to put them in second overall, only one point behind the Italians on E
uz II Monella Vagabonda. Germany's
Ub's Immak Inst Service finished in second while the third place went to talented Swiss crew of
SuperbusI helmed by Mathias Bermejo.
The provisional results, after six races and with one discard, sees the top spot still in the hands of
Euz ll Monella Viziata leading by just one point (22) on
GAES Mundo Marino (23) and five on
Bribon-Movistar (27) helmed by Marc de Antonio.
The 2011 Platu 25 Worlds resume today with more races and, undoubtedly, will be as exciting as ever with the Spanish Armada, five boats in the first ten places, attacking the Italians and trying to keep at bay the Germans.
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