Risør, Norway (July 27, 2017) – Under tricky, shifty sailing conditions ESSIQ Racing Team took the early lead on day one, taking bullets in three back-to-back races. After a slow start to the series in event one, Nicklas Dackhammar and his all Swedish lineup hit the water hard to practice ahead of this event and today it has clearly paid off.
Nicklas and team were definitely happy with the day, coming in to the dock with big grins on their faces, commenting, “We are really happy with today, and great conditions to sail in. Starting off with three bullets in a regatta is always a good start.”
Hot on the heels of the Swedes is British flagged GAC Pindar, skippered by Ian Williams. Ian admitted to struggling on nailing the starts, but thanked his crew for their hard work to progress up through the fleet and taking the team also to a hat-trick of wins today. Just two points separate the top two teams, and with no discards over this three day regatta the competition is wide open.
Jonas Warrer came into the event at the top of the series leaderboard, winning act one in Gothenburg. “We didn’t really know where we were last time, now we know we can beat everybody.” Perhaps a little optimistic from the Danish skipper as he couldn’t manage a race win today, but high scoring races leave him in third place after day one.
The light and tricky winds of the morning gave way to a wet and wild front that blew over the race course for the final two races, forcing the race committee to order a single reef in the last race as gusts exceeded 20 knots and Johnie Berntsson narrowly missed out on three capsizes.
The schedule for tomorrow is for a more consistent 15 knots from the southwest – the ideal direction for this narrow race area. Racing begins at 14:00CET.
Risør Day 1 Results
| Pos | Country | Team | Skipper | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | PP | Tot Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SWE | ESSIQ Racing Team | Nicklas Dackhammar | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 10 | |||
| 2 | GBR | GAC Pindar | Ian Williams | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | |||
| 3 | DEN | Wallén Racing | Jonas Warrer | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 20 | |||
| 4 | SWE | FLUX Team | Johnie Berntsson | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 23 | |||
| 5 | AUS | Neptune Racing | Sam Gilmour | 4 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 25 |