Start of the final postponed – Rixgens/Reinke about their qualifying race – SegelReporter

Lina Rixgens and Sverre Reinke explain how they organized their race: “The qualifying race was pretty tough!” Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. the starting signal is fired for the approximately 80 nm long course – and it gets straight to the point. We started downwind at 15-20 knots. Since the area is still protected by the Île de Groix, but we expected much more wind later, we decided on the small A4 gennaker. Our goal was to get to the final safely and not risk anything for a possible podium. Many probably thought similarly, because only 3/11 boats use the big A2.

At first we had some problems finding our speed. We were doing well – but the others were faster. In retrospect, we realized that the instruments were not well calibrated and we had targeted the wrong wind angles. So we slowly sank to the back of the fleet.

90 minutes after take-off we decided to change our mode: we turned off the instruments and concentrated 110% on the spinnaker and controlling the 2m+ waves. With success – boat by boat we moved forward again. We reached the eastern “leeward mark” in sixth place.

In the final we will meet the best 5 teams from both qualifications. Because the fifth low pressure area is already approaching this week, the start has been postponed to 11 a.m. on Monday. If there are any changes, we will keep you updated. But until then, our bodies have to regenerate a little…”