Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
The opening day of racing at the 470 World Championships in San Isidro, Argentina was initially dogged by light wind, and just 2 races were sailed.
Getting on the scoresheet early on is important as it sets the tone and gives some margin of safety net. For some the opening day couldn’t have been better, for others the game plan didn’t quite unfold as intended. In a light and shifty breeze and a hard to read race course, teamwork and finesse makes all the difference. The silt from the delta turns the water brown, making it very hard to physically see the breeze on the water.
There is nowhere on the race course where teams feel safe, as it is hard to see where the breeze will come next and it has a history of swinging quite dramatically.
Two wins to New Zealand’s Paul Snow-Hansen/Daniel Wilcox gave them a day you can normally only dream about.
The defending 470 World Champions Belcher/Ryan are certainly not known for collecting UFD penalties on their scoresheet – and did just that in the first race, which was something of a shock to everyone.
The RSA pairing of Asenathi Jim and Roger Hudson scored a really good 3rd in race 1, and a 16 in race 2, to give them 7th spot overall.
Roger Hudson has always maintained he would be satisfied with a top 10, happy with a top 5 and delighted with a medal. So after day 1 we have a satisfied pairing as they are within the strict goals they set themselves.
They have 2 further races today, so watch this space.
