The European Fireball Championship fleet had an early rise again on Thursday in Maccagno, Italy with racing slated for an 8.30am start and four races scheduled. Race five got away around 9am in a very decent Northerly breeze of around 16 knots. With the best breeze along the left-hand shoreline, the pin end was crowded, and that side was favoured with pressure and a wind bend. Claude and Ruedi won race 5, but more significantly, DJ Edwards & Vyv Townend scored second, consolidating their position at the top of the leaderboard.
Before race 6 got underway, the breeze swung right, requiring a slight course reset. The start got underway in good breeze but there were already signs of the pressure lessening up the course. And so it transpired that the wind eased steadily to medium/light across the course with the best remaining breeze on the left shoreline. As the race progressed, the wind became less and less, and those on the right side of the course suffered the most. The race was won by Xavier Broise & Trystan Robin and again DJ Edwards and Vyv Townend were 2nd.
This gave the UK team a very clear lead overall on 11 points nett versus Martyn and Daniel Lewis on 31 points and Jiri Paruzik & Jakub Kosvika lying 3rd overall on 37 points.
By the finish of race 6 the wind had almost completely died and the fleet returned ashore for a long postponement to wait for the direction to shift to the anticipated afternoon breeze.
While sailors enjoyed good afternoon sunshine the wind refused to play ball and at about 16.20 the flags went up calling a halt to the days racing.
Tomorrow is the final day of racing and with a 3pm cut off an early start is anticipated.
