Tuesday
Today's sailing in Sligo has not taken the regatta any further forward in terms of determining who will be the 2011 Fireball World Champion. Yes, for the second day in a row, no races were completed, but in contrast to yesterday, none were started either! The morning of the summer solstice was grey and drizzly in Sligo, and combined with a forecast of 1 – 6 knots from a variety of directions, the omens for racing were not good.
The fleet launched under a postponement flag at 12:30 and was greeted almost immediately with a rain shower en route to the racing area. That brought some breeze but it died again quickly and what was left, in varying degrees of pressure, went from SE to almost due N. The difficulty was that during this entire period the strength never stayed above the requisite 5 knots for long enough to consider a start. The consequence for the fleet was a 3.5hr sojourn on the water that ended when the N flag was flown under the postponement flag – abandoned – to be sailed at a later date. more...