Ireland's 'Breeze Queen' Annalise Murphy got off to a flying start at the first day of the Semaine Olympique Française in La Rochelle, with strong wind and sea conditions. Competitors faced a 'beefed up' weather on the French west coast with more than a twenty knots of south–westerlies and gusts of up to 35–knots and strong swells. Because of the strong winds only the RS :X Men, Laser, Laser Radial, and Finn have been able to compete so far.
Unfortunately, a black flag penalty (a premature start) in the second race has put the Irish Laser Radial 2016 Olympic campaigner back in 19th in the 37–boat fleet. Joining Annalise in La Rochelle are fellow Irish Olympic trialists Aoife Hopkins of Howth YC (26th) and Aisling Keller of Lough Derg (28th) and Nicole Hemeryck of the National Yacht Club in 33rd.
The French Radial fleet is without some of its Olympic stars including any of the London 2012 medallists but there are still some significant players in attendance inlcuding fleet leader, the rising Danish Star Anne-Marie Rindom. Full results here
Behind the Dane there is a French trio with Amélie Riou, seond, Pernelle Michon third and local girl Mathilde De Kerangat fourth who said after sailing: 'A physical day for us, and as our sailing area is quite far away, there is a lot of sea with big swells. It’s been awhile since I last sailed in this conditions, it was awesome. Today was a good day for me and after my recuperation, I’ll be ready for tomorrow’s fight'.
Racing continues this morning with more moderate winds of 10 to 12 knots forecast.
Top three after 1 day of racing:
RS:X Men (1 race)
1. Benoit Bigot, FRA, 1 point
2. Igor De L'Hermite, FRA, 2
3. Adrien Mestre, FRA, 3
Laser (2 races)
1. Jean Baptiste Bernaz, FRA, 2
2. Sergey Komissarov, RUS, 6
3. Alessio Spadoni, ITA, 6
Laser Radial (2 races)
1. Anne-Marie Rindom, DEN, 6
2. Amelie Riou, FRA, 8
3. Pernelle Michon, FRA, 8
Finn (2 races)
1. Poggi Giorgio, ITA, 2
2. Max Salminen, SWE, 5
3. Enrico Voltolini, ITA, 5