By Alexander Smith
MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) – Sailors finally stretched their legs in Mediterranean wind and waves on Tuesday, with the Dutch duo of Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz relishing the changed conditions to regain the lead from their French rivals in the women’s skiff series.
The stronger winds also suited New Zealand’s pairing of Olympic gold and silver medal winner Jo Aleh and Molly Meech, who leapt up the leaderboard to eighth with a win – known as a ‘bullet’ in sailing – in the last race of three on the day.
“It was a fun way to start off by stretching our legs and having a fast boat,” said Van Aanholt, who admitted to a bit of “a shocker” in Tuesday’s first start after miscalculating the stability of wind, adding it was “never boring”.
“We just want to focus on ourselves and attack the race,” said Duetz when asked about their strategy for Wednesday.
Others crews to enjoy the breeze included the Swedish pair of Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Nelzler, who also won one race to place third overall so far in the series.
“We went in today like we did all the (other) days and just went for it and today we finally got to show why we are here, so we are happy,” said Bobeck.
For the Kiwi veterans, an end to the frustrations of the light breezes which have characterised the first six races was obvious in their beaming smiles after the 49erFX fleet had battled with big gusts and challenging waves to get back ashore.
“We’ve been saying to ourselves the whole week that we really want to enjoy this regatta and today we finally had some fun,” said New Zealand’s Meech, who won skiff silver in 2016.
(Reporting by Alexander Smith; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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