A light wind at Trieste today.

Gilmour(USA) and Harrap(USA) gain semi final places.

After the late afternoon storm of yesterday, there was little wind at Trieste today. A light westerly wind allowed the match between Peter Gilmour (OneWorld, USA) and Mitija Kasmina of the Slovenian Match Race team to go ahead, seeing the Americans victorious by a 3-1 margin.

The calm wind forced the organisers to postpone racing for over an hour, then, at approximately 16.30 hours, the teams Alinghi Swiss Challenge of Murray Jones and Brad Butterworth, and OneWorld 2 captained by Kelvin Harrap descended into the water. After the victory of the Swiss team in the first match, the Americans then went onto win the 2nd 3rd and 4th gaining a place in the semi finals.

Tomorrow, starting from 10 am the regattas of the of the quarter finals will conclude with the match between Paul Cayard (Oracle 1) and Furio Benussi from the home team Sailing Planet, followed by the draw between the losers of the quarter finals. The best two teams will confront the losers of the semi finals for the third place.

The mood on the second day of the trials of the Nations Cup is enthusiastic. The regatta is being staged near the shoreline and Trieste has been transformed into a ‘ yachting stadium’ with vast numbers of spectators flooding the village area. Federico Stopani head of the Tutta Trieste consortium (organisers of the Nations Cup) stated “I am happy for the city of Trieste. The Nations Cup is not only a regatta but an act of love for our city.”