GBR 420s at the Palamos Christmas Race day 3

GBR 420s at the Palamos Christmas Race in Spain – Day 3

by John Meadowcroft 22 Dec 17:21 AEDT 19-22 December 2021

Henry Heathcote & Hector Bennett on day 3 of the Palamos Christmas Race © Jon Cawthorne

There were three races for the blue flight on Tuesday and 2 for the yellow group. Winds were once again generally light, start-lines were busy and many competitors picked up starting penalties, including unfortunately some of the British sailors. With five races now complete the fleet will divide into Gold and Silver for the final day of racing.

Henry Heathcote and Hector Bennett had a good day with three top ten finishes and go into gold fleet placed 5th overall in the 95 boat fleet with five top ten finishes. No one ahead of them has a better discard so they are really well placed now having sailed an excellent qualifying series.

They are joined in Gold by Alice Davis and Oliver Rayner who started brilliantly on Monday with a 1 and 3, and were then involved in the fracas of Monday’s abandoned race was wasn’t, a race from which they now count a redress score from having collected a black flag today. They know they can win races and will hope to regain momentum and move forwards on Wednesday.

Ollie Meadowcroft and Oscar Cawthorne collected a couple of top 10 results Tuesday and also make gold fleet.

Weather forecast for Wednesday is light winds again. The Brits don’t normally fancy the light winds in the Med but they are enjoying the Spanish life and the sailing this week and learning a lot. Big days racing ahead and then home for Xmas and isolation.

Results after Day 3:

Video clips at www.christmasrace.org/en/default/races/race-video-item/text/45thPalamosChristmasRace-2021-en/video/1178

Full results at www.christmasrace.org/en/default/races/race-resultsall