Swan One Design 2020 – Day 1

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image of Swan One Design
Swan One Design

Swan One Design 2020 – Day 1

Eight races won by six different crews marked a captivating opening day of the inaugural Swan One Design Worlds held in Scarlino, Tuscany.

Following gigantic efforts from organisers to ensure a safe environment for competition to take place, the 26-strong fleet was able to focus on racing in three highly-competitive classes.

ClubSwan 50s (15 yachts from seven countries) and Swan 45s (five yachts from three countries) are competing for their annual world titles while the newly-formed ClubSwan 36 class (six yachts, two countries) compete for the Gold Cup. Racing concludes on Saturday 17th October.

image of Swan One Design
Swan One Design

Conditions were varied – consistent breeze and sunshine for race one gave way to showers, grey sky and light winds as the afternoon developed. On the water, the evidence is that the hallmarks of gripping One Design racing will define the week’s competition.

Despite a sluggish start the defending world champion Skorpidi (Russia) soon laid down an early marker to her opposition dominating the first race of the day.

image of marina in Tuscany
marina in Tuscany

Skilfully detecting the optimum position on the approach to the first windward mark, she found herself in the envious position of being able to control her rivals for the remainder of the contest.

ClubSwan 50 racing though is highly-competitive and unpredictable.

Come the second race, Skorpidi’s bright start evaporated as she lost ground to determined opposition and eventually finished thirteenth.

German crews Earlybird, Hatari and Onegroup found themselves challenging for victory.

Guided by renowned tactician Jochen Schümann, Onegroup, the 2018 world champion, read the wind direction best on the final leg to see off the challenge of Hatari, led by the tactics of Markus Wieser.

In the third and final race, Skorpidi again took the bullet following a decisive move ahead of the second windward mark. Tenaz (Spain), on a day of rapidly improving performances, finished runner-up.

However, with two seconds and a fourth, Hatari proved most adept at dealing with the intensity of the day and heads the leaderboard.

Owner Marcus Brennecke was understandably delighted with his crew’s performance and approach, and said;

“We are very happy with our start to the championship. We play it conservative and not too extreme. In the last race we were again in second place approaching the finish but lost some positions when deciding which side to cover.”

Swan One Design 2020 – Day 1

https://yachtingnews.uk/2019/10/25/middle-sea-race-2019/

https://www.nautorswan.com/w1/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/SWAN-REGATTA-EVENTS-CALENDAR-2019-2023.pdf

 

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