Spectacular night race!
Exactly at 22:00 race commitee started Night Race of LOTTO 49er Grand Prix Gdynia.
5 teams competed for Tissot Watches in great sailing conditions.
There was 10-12kt of wind and pretty wavy. Sailors had to sail 3 laps on windward- leeward course.
Oppositet to last year, when there was no wind and it was pumping race this time it was real sailing.
First on the lead was young team Ponieczyński/ Wierzbicki. Boys took better tactic on the start to hold the boat closer to the shore. They started to sail earlier and took advantage above 150 meters to following teams.
Three boats of Januszewski, Przybytek and Basalkin were fighting for the second place.
After race Paweł Kołodziński told: “It was really amazing to sail in such conditions. Lights made it easy to handle the boat, but it was impossible to see shifts.”
On lap 3 rivalry was on highest level as Ponieczyński lost some meters. On the last windward mark there were 3 boats just neck to neck.
Fast downwind course and everything was to depend of sprint to the finish through crowds on the shore to the finish line.
Finally best decision took Łukasz Przybytek who last dropped spinaker and did not took the foils up. He left his crew with boat heeled very much and run as Usain Bolt.
Trully Łukasz was even faster to come back to Paweł to help him with the boat 🙂 Fortunately regatta stuff helped all sailors to manage the boats.
There was no second in this race, but we need to congratulate for all sailors for great spectacle.
Organizers rate audience at 1500 people on the beach. Amazing!
