Sunday was the last and final day of
competition in which we where presented with
perfect blue skies and 15-22 knots winds.
Race committee went for 3 races back to back,
so most sailors choose 10-11 meters sails
not to get overpowered if the wind picked up
to much.
On the first race, most sailors went for a
starboard pin end star. I started close to
Galvan and Paulao, who started just behind
me and manage to cover me from the top and
with that I risked taking to the other side.
Paulao kept covering me and he rounded the
top mark in first, I came in second followed
by Galvan Mathias and Sergio Mehl.
Paulao kept the lead until the end; I came
in second and Sergio Mehl close in third.
Second Race winds picked up and 10.7 was
starting to get a bit big. Paulao and I had
a battle at the start and he managed to tack
ahead and cover me to the upwind mark.
Sergio was in third with mathias, galvan and
Raul Saubidet all close together.
On the second upwind, Paulao was a few
meters ahead of me and tacked, I kept going
and risked going to the other side, I lost
big ground with this and Paulao took the win,
I came in second followed close by Sergio.
The third and final race was the deciding
one for the event title, since I had 3
firsts and 2 seconds, and Paulao had 2
firsts and 3 seconds. If he won the last
race, we would tie and he would win on the
tie break, that here, was however won the
last race as apposed to whoever has the best
discard. Paulo and I started at the pin end
and went on a match race dual until the
upwind mark. He rounded in first, I came in
second and Sergio and Mathias followed
closely. On the downwind I stayed close to
Paulo and jibed earlier just making the
downwind marc, with this I caught up a bit
and was just a few meters behind. On the
second upwind, Paulo tacked and I went a bit
further and tacked, we started to go upwind
and the winds started to drop, Paulo tacked
early to the mark as there seemed to be a
lull up ahead and I kept going, when I
tacked I went straight to the marc with a
lucky gust that came in, I couldn't believe
it. I rounded in first and went to the last
downwind and mini slalom at the at the end,
followed closely by Paulao. I finished first
and took the event win, Paulo in second,
Sergio in third (who unfortunately had some
DNS on other races and had to count them on
the end results) and mathias in fourth.
In the end we had a total of 6 races and 1
discard. It was also great so see lots of
formula sailors from Chile, Uruguay and from
all over Argentina including young
generation and women competitors.
The event was superbly organized and next
years South Americans is almost sure to be
here. The people are super friendly, the
lake is a perfect formula venue and we even
had time to go and get a close look at the
Aconcagua Mountain which is 6962 meters tall.
After the Himalayas, it's the tallest
mountain in the world, the view is just
spectacular.
Special thanks to Andres Sasso and all the
friends from Mendoza, who went out of their
way to make us fell at home and put on a
great event.
All action photos will be up on the
www.windsurfargentino.com
by the end of the week, so make sure you
check it out.
Full results available at
http://windsurfargentino.typepad.com/FW.htm
The top 3 in open formula are:
1. Wilhelm Schurmann BRA999 (Starboard-Neilpryde)
2. Paulo Dos Reis BRA 3333 (Starboard-Servene-BL3)
3. Mathias Pinheiro BRA 5 (F2-North Sails-
Banco do Nordeste)
Regards, Wilhelm
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