Foiled Plans at Moth Worlds

Published on July 25th, 2017

Malcesine, Italy (July 25, 2017) – Even at one of the most glamorous of sailing venues sometimes mother nature intervenes. A series of summer thunderstorms caused havoc with the regular breezes on Lake Garda putting an end today to any chance of racing on day one of the McDougall + McConaghy Moth Worlds.

Early this morning, the weather was looking good as the Pelèr was blasting down the lake from the North with white water and clear skies. But as the first two groups of the fleet of 220 boats prepared to launch, some black clouds streamed in over the mountains threatening some wild summer thunder storm activity. The two race areas were experiencing big shifts in the breeze and anything between 2 knots and 15 knots.

The Yellow fleet did get into a start sequence but a big shift minutes before the start put and end to any chance of racing. Then a huge black thunder cloud loomed over the horizon from Riva del Garda shutting down the breeze and sending some impressive lightning displays over the lake.

Race Management had no choice but to err on the side of caution and send the fleet home for safety reasons. Once the storms had cleared the skies cleared, the sun came out for a glorious evening but alas the breeze had shut down for the day.

The revised schedule for the Qualifying Series on July 26 is for an early start for two groups (Red and Yellow) of 8.25am (local time). Blue and Green groups will not start before 10.00hrs (local time).

Racing has been scheduled from July 25 to 30.

Format: The Qualifying Series will conclude after two days if at least four races have been completed. If fewer than four races have been completed the Qualifying Series will be extended to complete them. Boats will be assigned to Finals Series fleets Gold, Silver and Bronze on the basis of their rank at the end of the Qualifying Series, with approximately 33% assigned to each fleet, rounded up if there is an uneven number of boats. Boats with the best Qualifying Series ranking will race in the Gold fleet, boats with the next best Qualifying Series ranking will race in the Silver Fleet, with all other boats being assigned to the Bronze Fleet. Boats with unbroken ties at the division point will be included in the better final series Fleet, ie. Gold not Silver and Silver not Bronze.

Event details – Entry list – Form Guide – Facebook