Strong breeze and swelling conditions greeted the races on the penultimate day of the Cascais SB20 World Championships. The conditions proved that it would be a superb race for the asymmetrical fleets. Everyone was very eager to start the day and in their thirst to beat the others, five of the boats were penalized for being OCS for the first gun shot of the day.
The breeze for the day had set in nicely to aid the starting of the race and was at 15 to 18 knots. There was also a rolling Atlantic swell that ensured that the race would be fast paced. As the second race progressed, the wind speed picked up to 20 knots and the right hand side was in for a strong favor. It was a classic Cascais race as the boats hit 18 knots downwind on a regular basis.
The final race, the 12 in the Cascais series, saw the wind drop from 12 knots at the start to 8 knots by the end of the first half of the race. Hugo Rocha was determined to put his best foot forward on the penultimate day of racing, especially, after retiring from the final race the previous day. He wanted to achieve the top position on the leaderboard by the end of the day on New Territories (RIS37110) and was able to get a 2-1-2 score line. The New Territories are firmly on top of the leaderboard with 45 points and the second one on the board is France Jeune SB20’s at 61 points.
There is a 77 point DNS that the Russian crew earned the previous day and this means that they do not have any margin for error on the final day of the race. There will be two races on the final day, before they all de-camp for an exhibition sail and Yacht Charter in Split.