Irishmen Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove, have been the first to take first place in the 49er, while the French team of Lili Sebesi and Albane Dubois claimed the top spot in the women's 49er FX. The Germans, Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer took first place in the Nacra 17 class.

The Spanish team, which already has a place for Tokyo in all three classes, is positioned in the top 10 in all three classes. The Canary Islander, Tara Pacheco, took sixth place after finishing first in the second leg. The competitors agreed that they have been pleasantly surprised by the trade winds of the Canary Islands.

 
Lanzarote welcomed sailors from more than 30 countries with unstable trade winds of 10 to14 knots and swell, very good conditions for racing. The 49ers were the first to complete the 3 qualifying races of the day, each consisting of 4 windward-leeward legs, in which the Irishmen Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove won, who said he was "very happy but there are still many races to go."

 
The Spanish team in this modality that will represent Spain in Tokyo, made up of the Cantabrian Diego Botín and the Galician Iago López, finished in fifth place, after a difficult start, "it was a good regatta, but we had problems at the beginning, it was difficult to get off from the start line." The Spanish duo, current world champions, have been training in Lanzarote since November, describing the island as "a discovery," especially for "the conditions in these winter months, as there is always wind, there are many waves and you can choose the conditions to train," said the Cantabrian sailor.

 
Many sailors had the same feeling: it was a complicated day, with many wind shifts and changes in intensity, with changes in wind direction of over 60 degrees and varying between 6 and 17 knots. "The most complicated thing was to be regular in the three races, with days like this it's easy to fall behind the fleet in some of the legs and lose the chance to make a comeback," explained Pepe Lis, coach of the 49er ESP.

For the Spanish 49er FX team, current world champions in this Olympic discipline, the wind was "playing all day." Galician Tamara Echegoyen and Mallorcan Paula Barceló said they were "very happy, although the day has been very complicated for all teams, but also for the race committee." There weren't many waves on the 49er FX course, but on the other two courses "there were big waves, and it was more difficult to sail," said Echegoyen.

Lanzarote surprised the competitors in the Nacra 17 racecourse, as they had to leave the water, although, finally, the waters of the strait between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura allowed them to compete. "I tried to make two starts, but unfortunately the wind changed direction by 30 degrees, and they had to postpone," said Tara Pacheco from the Canary Islands, who together with Florian Trittel from Barcelona, are third in the world rankings.

Sailing: The Art Of Knowing How To Read The Wind
 
The trade winds coming from the north have pleasantly surprised the more than 240 competitors coming from more than 30 countries from all over the world. The channel located between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura is a racecourse with very strong, so the sailors did not have an easy time in this strait. "The conditions offered by the Canary Islands are very variable, Lanzarote, and more specifically Marina Rubicón, has ideal conditions for sailing, and on many occasions, it is really similar to Japan," said Tara Pacheco, who highlighted "the advantage of training on islands 365 days a year."

 
The sailors have to select which side of the racecourse they are going to choose to move towards the windward mark. There are two key conditions on the racecourse in the strait between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura that make it similar to the Olympic racecourse in Tokyo (Enoshima): strong winds and swell, and also, unstable winds. The competitors were pleasantly surprised with the weather conditions of the islands and their people, as well as the goodness of the trade winds, especially because the Canary Islands are the only place in Europe where they can sail driven by these winds.

Text Credits: Lanzarote International Regatta
Photo Credits: Sailing Energy / Lanzarote International Regatta