PalmaVela 2017 Race Update – Saturday, May 6th, 2017

Palma keeps dishing up great sailing days with a twist. Today the teams had to contend with a westerly gradient scrubbing across the island giving righties, and the left shifted geographic wrap around the SW point of the island and a bit of thermal effect to mix into the bag. Thus, we had 10knts to 22 knots from 230-300. Another good day for Bella. Race 4 did not go as planned and Bella ended up on outside of a right shearing shift. Bella staged a great fightback to lose on the line by 2 seconds in the fight for 2nd place with Momo. Race 5 Bella made good use of left pressure and shift to cross the fleet 1/4 way up the first beat. Bella consolidated this lead by extending downwind for a good solid race win. We go into tomorrow with a great opportunity to win the regatta. It’s who beats who with Bella and Momo. If Cannonball wins then we can all be tied including tiebreaker. So, it’s a great opportunity for the Bella team to execute all the individual tasks that go towards a complete performance under the pressure of a need to win situation. This type of day is invaluable to have under our belt as we look forward to defending the world championship title in September. Winning teams are forged in the fires of adversity and hammered on the anvil of competition, so win lose or draw it’s a good building block to our progression this season. (Official Results Today: Race 4 = Bella 3rd, Race 5 = Bella 1st) (Photo Credit: Sailing Energy)

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