St Barth Catacup 2018: Day 2

All images by Michael Gramm & Pascal Alemany / St Barth CataCup 2018, more at their fb page &  offcial web: stbarthcatacup.com – Video Easy Ride and KWTstudio / St Barth Cata Cup 2018

St Barth CataCup 2018, Day 2. Postponement earlier today on unstable weather. In the afternoon the org set the course inside the bay for 3 short races. Only one was completed in heavy winds/waves as pics and video shows. Long reachs also can be seen and Arg sailors report pretty tough conditions.

Volker & Mehl were leading , wind dropped a bit and Paschalidis & Trigonis came from behind in the
last upwind leg, the Argies managed to close the gap downwind but wasn’t enough.
Still they maintain the lead after 3 races with three consecutive 2nd places.

Demesmaeker & Gagliani were 3rd and maintain low scores to defend second place overall.
Cruz & Mariano had a bad course side selection today and were +20th, they recover place to a great 4th and a 3rd overall.
Still the Greeks have two bullets and a 11th , currently holding 4th position.

Proud to see all the Arg teams on the Scorpion and specially those colors for Mehl’s boat!
The Argies are fighting against the recent World Champs. Sarasota was a mess on the course with lottery all over the place (the right teams won though), the Arg teams had some good races but couldn’t deliver their best performance. Lets hope for Costa Brava to deliver next year, the Arg team will be ready.

Good to finally see a photo from Mehl’s Scorpion , as I couldn’t find any from 2018 Worlds and those 25 daily pics… Check the media effort from St Barth, as always the benchmark. Even take video out and you have hundreds of pics every day.

Below official report sent by St Barth Catacup press:
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Right Side Up And Upside Down
On Friday, the second day of competition for the 11th St. Barth Cata Cup, the weather conditions made life difficult, not only for the race committee, which had to adapt the schedule in relationship to passing rain showers, and as a result could not start the day’s race until 3:30pm, but also for the racers who had to cope with winds between 20 and 25 knots and chaotic seas during the only race of the day. In these challenging conditions, basically similar to the previous day, logically the same teams were at the head of the class. And the triple stars of the day? Greeks Iordanis Paschalidis and Konstantinos Trigonis (St Barth Assurances), Argentineans Pablo Volker and Sergio Mehl (Paraboot by Maxwell & Co), and Belgians Patrick Demesmaeker and Olivier Gagliani (Les Perles de St Barth). These three duos engaged in a remarkable battle right up to the last tack, and if the current world champions finally won the Grand Prix “EDEN ROCK VILLA RENTAL,” the South Americans held on to their first place in the provisional ratings for the regatta at the end of day two. These ratings are a bit upside down at the moment, due to a large number of boats that were forced to abandon: only 29 of the 51 that started actually crossed the finish line in the regatta’s third race.

The weather forecast was not promising today, especially this morning. That proved to be true, with the arrival of several rain showers that quickly caused the race committee to delay the starting time on this second day of racing. Even so, the conditions were still pretty rough for the sailors in St. Barth Cata Cup. “Clearly there was enough wind—even more than yesterday. At times, it was almost too much. I am especially thinking of the little tack after the first marker, at which time there was so much wind we all crossed our fingers to avoid flying off the water and we all hung on as best we could to stay put,” explains Olivier Gagliani, who actually proved his mettle out there today, battling from start to finish with the duos of Iordanis Paschalidis—Konstantinos Trigonis and Pablo Volker—Sergio Mehl. “It was quite a battle between the three of us. The Argentineans at one point led the fleet, before being passed by the Greeks during the second upwind tack. They had started out gently before accelerating the cadence at the end of the race, conversely to Patrick and me, as we applied the brakes as we approached the finish line to ensure our place, as we had a good lead over the fourth-place boat,” points out the winner of the 2015 Cata Cup, who actually had Pierre Le Clainche—Antoine Joubert (ODP) hot on his heels at one point. “They passed the second buoy with us, but after that they must have had a problem,” comments Olivier.

“Challenging but fun”
Those in the race agree: “When we were battling with the trio in the lead and had a bit of an advance on the others, after a jibe, I didn’t even have time to get back in the strap and I was projected forward before I had time to ease the jib. Result: we capsized,” points out Antoine Joubert, who evidently lost a few places in the battle, but who came back and climbed up a few spots to finish sixth and as the first French team. “Today, as noted Trois Pommes (Olivier Gagliani), it was a bit challenging, but it was fun,” declared the Frenchman from the department of Morbihan in Brittany, who was the winner of the 2016 St. Barth Cata Cup and who hopes to repeat that performance this year, even if the task will be a little more arduous in light of the competition, starting with Argentineans Pablo Volker and Sergio Mehl who took second place this afternoon, as they did in the two races on Thursday. “We are happy to place second, but we know we can’t just sit back!” assure the F18 sailors sporting the colors of Paraboot by Maxwell & Co, and who still hold the leader’s spot in the provisional standing this evening.

Out Today, Back Tomorrow
“Obviously we are satisfied but we are especially pleased as we once again had a great day and a great race, even if we honestly clenched our teeth two or three times, as to not capsize. We occasionally found ourselves facing a wall of water and it’s true that scared us a little. In any case, we had a great time,” relates Sergio Mehl, who was not very surprised to learn that only 29 boats finally finished the race of the day. In fact, between those who preferred to not brave the bad weather and decided to stay ashore, and those who encountered damage to their boats, the number abandons almost set a record, and not only with the least experienced sailors, as witnessed by the problems met by some of the heavy hitters, and in particular two favorites who broke their masts: Enrique Figueroa and Ruben Booth (Nikki Beach St Barth), as well as Christian Vilate and Lucas Smith Gonzales (Transit by Maxwell & Co). In short, this was a rather unusual day, but tomorrow good weather is expected (winds at around 15 knots and seas a little more well behaved), and once four races have been completed, each crew can erase their worst performance from their average and that might make things look a little different…

Schedule: Saturday November 17
8:45am-9am: “Wake Me Up” with Geoffrey Personal Trainer
9am: Briefing for Prix “ ST BARTH ASSURANCES–ALLIANZ ”
10am: Priz “ ST BARTH ASSURANCES–ALLIANZ ” race
12pm-1:30pm: Lunch at NIKKI BEACH
2:30pm: Prix “ ST BARTH ASSURANCES–ALLIANZ ” race
8pm: Announcing of results for Prix “ ST BARTH ASSURANCES-ALLIANZ ”
Dinner at NIKKI BEACH
10pm: Free concert open to the public at NIKKI BEACH with JEAN-PHILIPPE MARTHELY

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Top ten below, full results here