WORLD CUP: Qualifying done, let the Finals begin

Hyères, France (April 23, 2013) – Two days of fickle breeze at ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyères brought the Qualification Series to a close, and with stronger wind scheduled for the rest of the week, the top teams will now advance for three days of Final Series racing.

Sailors carry forward a non-discardable race with their points equal to their final rank in the qualification stage. Following the final series, the top ten will advance to Saturday’s medal race

The top performance from North America came from Caleb Paine (San Diego, Calif.) in the Finn event. Making a turnaround to his previous day’s performance where he was black flagged in race 1 and 23rd in the other, his race results today of 2-4 put him in 9th overall, and into the gold fleet.

Entering the day in third, Women’s 470 team of Annie Haeger (East Troy, Wis.) and Briana Provancha (San Diego, Calif.) stumbled today, posting a 16-11 to fall down to 6th overall. With two bad starts and sub-standard upwind speed, the team salvaged both races with good downwind speed in the 30-boat fleet.

Event website: http://swc.ffvoile.com/
USA report: http://sailingteams.ussailing.org/News/2013/Day_2_SWC_Hy_res.htm

BACKGROUND: The ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres (Apr 22-27) is the fourth and final event of the 2012-13 ISAF Sailing World Cup season. The season began in Melbourne, Australia (Dec 2-8) and was in Miami (Jan 28-Feb 2), and then Palma, Spain (Apr 1-6). The ISAF Sailing World Cup is open to the sailing classes (equipment) chosen for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions. – http://www.sailing.org/worldcup/home.php