French Sailors Score A Perfect Day

The French team of Olivier BACKES and Laurent VOIRON had the perfect start to the championship yesterday, scoring two first place finishes in the opening races of the Europeans. Beautiful sunny conditions and 10-14 knot breezes helped them on their way.

There are two events running in Gran Canaria concurrently at the moment, the European Championship, which is only open to athletes from European countries, and the Mats Nyberg Trophy, which is an open event. Australian sailors, Darren BUNDOCK and John FORBES, despite a nearly disastrous race one from their point of view, dragged themselves back in the second race to take the gun; followed by the French pair, first Europeans and overall leaders in both sets of results. British sailors Leigh MCMILLAN and Mark BULKELEY had a consistent day with a fourth and a fifth to lie third overall. Fernando ECHAVARRI and Anton PAZ (ESP) are in second place.

The race course was setup in the bay of San Cristóbal, with the windward leg one mile towards the south and near Laja. With this backdrop the two races took place with hardly any protests. The 51 teams from 20 countries returned happy to the beach of the Alcaravaneras.

Today the wind is expected from the north, a situation that will refresh the atmosphere and provide differing conditions to those of day one.

Full results from both the Mats Nyberg Trophy and The European Championship are available on the event website at the address below.

Overall Top Ten – Mats Nyberg Trophy