Olympic Diary: August 6 - Another trying day at Marseille

470 fleet - Mixed Dinghy - Paris2024 - Marseille - August 6, 2024 © World Sailing / Lloyd Images

The breeze in Marseille was largely a no-show on Tuesday, and the forecast for Wednesday is for even less.

According to forecasts, Thursday, the final day of the 2024 Olympic Sailing Regatta seems to be sailable, at this stage.

Marseille's morning breeze was sufficient for some racing to be conducted with three races being sailed in the Mixed Multihull to complete their Opening Series of 12 races.

In the end the Mens Kite completed two races, while just one race was sailed in the Womens Kite event.

The Mixed Dinghy event, sailed in 470s, managed to complete two races. There was plenty of marginal roll tacking in the 470, as the crews tried to work their way upwind as the breeze eased at the end of the first leg.

At the end of the day the score in the breeze versus race management contest, was eight races finished and ten either cancelled or postponed. And the breeze, or lack of it, won that particular contest.

From the "it had to happen" file there was the "starting ready or not" aberration Race 6 of the Womens Kite, when six riders could not get their kites flying, and the race started without them, in a reduced fleet of 14 riders.

Ellie Aldridge (GBR) who was leading the 20 strong fleet after five races, was one of those left behind.

“I am not too happy," Aldridge said ashore. "In the first race I did not start because it was light and my kite was in the water. And in the second race they abandoned it and I was leading, it was not a great day for me."

"I could just as well have stayed on the beach. I think they are picking the wrong time to lay the course."

"There was wind to begin with but the wind just dropped. I think they are getting too desperate to run races," she remarked.

"Yesterday we were waiting around for an hour while they AP’d us and we were like ‘either race us or send us back to the beach.’

"It is tricky but they are just trying to push the winds - as there is not much of it.”

The Race 6 incident resulted in Aldridge, thanks for having the ability to discard a race, being tied on 12pts with Lauriane Nolot (FRA) at the top of the leaderboard.

The Mixed Multihull will decide its Medal distribution whenever the Medal Race is able to be sailed.

Although the defending Olympic and World Champions Ruggero Tita and Catarina Banti still lead the regatta after 12 races, that is against their run of early to mid contest form when they won six out of seven races sailed. Since Race 7 they have been unable to bother the scorer with another wi.

In the first race today, the were judged to have jumped the start, and were disqualified. They followed that up with a fifth and second, and along with a couple of sixth places yesterday, the outcome is that they lead their event by 14pts from the Argentinean crew of Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco. The New Zealand and British crews are tied for third on 47pts each.

The net result from that field and points is that one of the four will miss winning a Medal.

On Tuesday night local time the regatta organisers provided an updated schedule of racing with four races cancelled for the Mens Kite, and five in the Womens event.

The Men's and Women's Dinghy Medal races were unable to be sailed due to the lack of wind, and will be sailed on Wednesday. Curiously two races have been cancelled when the race schedule for the Mixed Dinghy provides for racing up until Friday.

About this stage in a major regatta - where medals or high performance grant money hang on the result, there always seems to be an increase in visitors to the Jury room, as sailors of all stripes plead their case with the Court of Last Resort.

Last night was no exception when multiple Redress claims were lodged with the International Jury by the six affected Womens Kite riders whose Kites had collapsed, and were not able to get them flying. Meanwhile race officials continued with the race start and the six were scored as Did Not Start.

The claim by the sailors was stated that the wind "dropped below 4 knots. It was impossible for me to fly the kite. 40% of the fleet could not start the race."

The Int Jury declined all redress claims, including one they lodged themselves on behalf of the fleet.

They made a decision: "Before and during the start of race 6, the Race Committee measured more than 6 knots of wind in average from the starting vessel, the finishing vessel and the windward mark vessel. The Race Committee uses a handheld anemometer on the starting vessel in order to avoid wind shadow caused by equipment on the vessel."

Interestingly no photos are available of the incident. There was no video shown in the Highlights, and no mention or explanation made in the accompanying commentary, even when the six competitors were shown on screen with DNS recorded alongside their names in the race results graphic. In fact on that particular frame there were more competitors with DNS, than there were finishing places.

It is a rather quaint sight in this regatta, where surrounded by the latest video and imaging technology, they hold up a hand held anemometer to gauge wind speed, and a piece of wool/ribbon to gauge direction - the same tools you'd expect to use setting up a course at the local sailing club. Most family cruisers have a more sophisticated system than this - purchased over the counter at the local boat shop.

World Sailing's race management policy requires the average to be determined over five minutes and over the whole of the race area.

Those familiar with the America's Cup will be well aware of the issues and processes used in that ultra-finickity environment to determine average windspeed, using a "rolling boxcar" method to take an average every 30 seconds, which in practice is a very simple but clear method.

In other Jury business the coaches/support team for Mauritius and Singapore/Croatia were prohibited from driving their support boats for a day, but were allowed on the water in another boat. The protest against the two for driving within a prohibited area was lodged by the International Jury. A second allegation of driving in the same prohibited area by one of the coaches was discounted by the Int Jury after it was revealed that he was "complying with a request from an event official to do so on one of these occasions."

The forecast for Wednesday is for less of the same, from Tuesday - and sadly, racing looks unlikely. However Thursday and Friday are much more promising, and hopefully the Sailing Events of Paris2024 will go out on a high note.

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