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8:55 PM Wed 22 Apr 2009 GMT
It would seem that Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) can do no wrong. After four days of an exceptionally up and down regatta at the Semaine Olympique Fran?aise in Hyeres, he has not yet placed worse than fifth and whatever happens in tomorrow's two races will go into Friday's medal race with a useful points lead.
Second placed Gasper Vincec (SLO), 12 points behind, is also doing well and has an identical points gap over third placed Marin Misura (CRO).
With the wind as fickle as ever for the first race, there were massive place changes and variation of pressure across the course area. which was again delayed while waiting for the wind. In fact the first race of the day, race seven of the series, didn't start until 16.00 as a week seabreeze worked its way down to the course.
Gaspic followed a fifth place in today's first race by his second race win of the week. Vincec had a more up and down day with an 11th and second while Misura actually climbed one place after posting an eighth and a 28th.
Gaspic said, ' I have good boat feeling and handling in light conditions. I am also fast so I can sail simply and sail with the group. I started training in Palma after the Olympic Games, and then later did two weeks training in Palma with the British. I train now with Marin and a new young coach. If we can continue like this we will both finish high.'
Bryan Boyd (USA) won the first race of the day. 'I had a horrendous start in the first race, and only managed to claw my way back into the 20s at the top mark. Down the first run the pressure began to drop out, and I saw a bit of wind coming down through the Radial fleet on the inner loop. I linked into a nice bit of pressure and found myself back in the top ten near the bottom of the run.'
'It got pretty weird at the bottom as there was a convergence zone of no wind that wobbled around and it paid huge to keep jibing back out for more breeze. I rounded in fifth and by this time the pressure had more or less settled. I picked a couple of nice shifts and was able to pull into the lead at the top. Down the run it was mostly port jibe and I went into 'Nascar Last Lap' mode staying directly in front of Eduard [Skornyakov] all the way down.'
After a second and a first place in the past two days Boyd is optimistic about his boatspeed. 'I've been struggling in the light conditions we've seen here all week, so I moved the rig around a bit and I seemed to be holding height better. It's been a tough pill to swallow on a fair few of these races when you seem to have done it all right, only to end up all wrong. Having a small extra turn of speed made all the difference in being able to pounce on the opportunities when they were there. But for sure, Ivan is showing us all that he's got speed to burn in this stuff.'
Elsewhere in the fleet, sailors were mixing high and low scores like they were going out of fashion. Eduard Skornyakov (RUS) placed second and 13th to climb to fourth overall, while Giles Scott (GBR) posted a 26th and 3rd to drop two places to fifth.
Michael Maier (CZE) is having his best regatta in a long time and placed fourth and 14th today to drop two places to sixth while Ed Wright (GBR) has his second horrible day with a 33rd and a 10th to drop one more place to seventh overall, though two good races tomorrow will allow him to drop the 33rd as the second discard kicks in.
As usual there are a lot of boats milling round the magic 10th place and hoping to make the medal race cut, but with variable winds forecast again for Thursday, there could still be some ups and downs to come.
by Robert Deaves
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Davis, TAS
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