French flawless at Student Yachting World Cup

Published on October 15th, 2013

Pornic, France (October 15, 2013) – The Student Yachting World Cup was especially intense today for the 14 teams racing equally matched J/80 boats. The weather condition was tiring for the crews as it has been raining all day. Still, France keeps a leap ahead in every race.

The French team had dominated the opening races yesterday but got an OCS penalty in one of the four races. The final ranking of the first day was: The USA (1st, 16 points), then France (2nd, 18 points) followed by Scotland (3rd, 20 points). The others’ ranking was Ireland (4th), Switzerland ( 5th), Australia ( 6th), England (7th), Belgium (8th), Defender (9th), Norway (10th), X-HEC (11th), Japan (12th),Germany (13th), and China (14th).

As the weather condition was not as good as yesterday, the first windward leeward race was the occasion to show how strong the crews were. Switzerland first dominated the race but had trouble in the third round, they finished fifth. The leader of yesterday, France proved the former victories were not a blow dealt by fate. They eventually won this race. Belgium and Australia were side by side but the latter had been faster to set the spinnaker in the last round and finished second.

The second race of the day was another windward leeward race. France crossed the arrival line first again. They made a good start and kept their head start the whole race. Scotland was behind them the first two rounds but the University of Louvain, the Belgium team, went over the Scottish just in front of the final line. The USA had been in danger during the whole race; they were ranked first at the end of the first day but finished 11th in this second race. They had been struggling to get over the last teams but eventually did not make it.

The third race of the day was another windward leeward race. Japan abandoned as they had broken their spinnaker. The Defender showed they were not overtaken by the fresh teams. They made a nice start and fought for the first position of the last race of the day against France. They were better than the French Riviera team in the leeward way however, France was faster to tack and passed the Defender on the way back to cross the line first.

The coastal race that had been planned was cancelled due to poor visibility. The Committee decided to postpone it for the following days.

Today has been a thrilling day of races. Weather conditions were tough and the teams came back to the harbour exhausted. France proved they will be strong competitors, and with teams now able to discard one race, they have elevated to the top of the standings.

Racing continues to October 19.

Event website: http://www.sywoc.org/

Results after Day Two

1 – FRA – Kedge BS (6 points)
2 – AUS – Maquarie University (25 points)
3 – USA – Team USA (26 points)
4 – SCO – Team Scotland (28 points)
5 – BEL – UCL (32 points)
6 – ENG – University of Southampton (32 points)
7 – DEF – UCD Team Ireland Powered by Energia (35 points)
8 – IRL – Dublin Universities (37 points)
9 – SUI – EPFL (37 points)
10 – FRAX – X-HEC (57 points)
11 – GER – RWTH Aachen University (57 points)
12 – NOR – NTNUI Sailing (58 points)
13 – JPN – Kobe University (71 points)
14 – CHN – Xiamen University (74 points)

The video highlights from the second racing day