Youth Challenge 2012 – Day 2

Another day of fantastic Garda conditions were the call of the day today. Aside from the racing this afternoon, the morning Northly wind came through up to 20 knots so the 29erXX teams and other training in the morning were treated to a double feature today.

Race 1

The afternoon started off with some slick maneuvering as the Spanish team of Canal and Gill punched through on port to lead to the mountains. An individual recall was signaled but only the Dutch went back, mistakenly as it turned out. By the leeward mark they were leading but only 3 or 4 boat lengths behind were Aussies and Danes. Then the Germans rounded the go left gate in 4^th and quickly tacked back to port to push into the cliffs with the rest of the fleet.

The Aussie team of Gilmour and Brownie got their layline call exactly right and edged out the Spanish to round the second windward in first and took the bullet from there. With the Spanish OCS that left the Danes in 2^nd and Germans in 3rd. The Aussies claim they were a bit rusty yesterday as helm David Gilmour has been off on the match race tour recently decreasing their 9er training time. With a day in the boat together under their belts that rust seems to have been all but eliminated.

Race 2

The breeze was up a couple knots for the 2^nd race. The Dutch and Germans contenders came flying off the pin end to cross the fleet and were instantly 30 meters ahead of the fleet who still had to tack to get right.

Meanwhile the Dane contenders had a critical error on their last double tack before the start and got stuck in irons. After a belaboured rescue they managed to start but a full 15 seconds behind the fleet in dead last. Race 5 may prove to be a critical one with the top group so tight on points.

The Germans held their nerve through the first lap and lead quite comfortably at the gate. Meanwhile, the Danes had pushed through the back of the fleet and were up to 14^th, with plenty left to do in the final lap.

The Germans held on for a resounding win, the biggest of any so far in the regatta. Meanwhile, the Danes pulled through to 8^th taking advantage of a couple mistakes at the finish line from crews ahead of them.

Race 3

Pressure was now squarely on the Danes to try and prevent the Germans from running away with the championship. Prior to the race they checked out the port approach and said they would give it a go as, â€œIt seems like there has been space each race.â€

Well as Murphyâ€™s law would have it, there was no space, but they followed through on the Port Tack Option and punched through leading with the Canadians to the right. Unfortunately for them, the Germans were showing no gaps in their game and were right with them on their hip, placing a better tack than the Canadians and pulling into the windward in 2^nd. Thatâ€™s how they rounded the first downwind gate of this three lapper as well.

Places stayed the same through lap 2, with the Spanish and Dutch passing through to 3^rd and 4^th. the Germans got a knot in the retrieval line giving the Danes some breathing room as they headed to the cliffs with afternoon shadows starting to grow.

The last lap solved nothing with the Danes comfortably won the final race.

No Numero Nome Punti 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 GER 216 Jan Hauke Erichsen, Max Lutz 7,0 2 1 1 (3) 1 2

2 DEN 8 Jonathan Bay, Christopher Thorsell 12,0 1 6 2 2 (8) 1

3 ESP 986 DIEGO BOTIN, PABLO TURRADO 21,0 3 4 7 4 (13) 3

4 NED 1159 Remy Oomens, Bart de Haan 25,0 (16) 2 4 11 4 4

5 GER 903 Justus Schmidt, max boehme 26,0 4 (9) 3 7 6 6

6 AUS 1189 David Gilmour, Nicholas Brownie 29,0 (14) 3 10 1 5 10

7 GER 1211 TIM ELSNER, MARKUS GRASSE 31,0 (12) 7 9 5 2 8

8 SWE 1270 Charlie Ekberg Enlund 43,0 6 10 11 (13) 7 9

9 DEN 1113 Mads Emil Stephensen LÃ¼beck, Christian Peter Stephensen LÃ¼b 44,0 5 5 13 12 9 (14)

10 GER 1102 Philipp MÃ¼ller 48,0 10 12 6 9 (18) 11