While the team from the USNA is still in a strong position they gave up a little ground and have slipped to third – just one point out of second.

When asked about how today went for his team, JWorld Annapolis President and USNA Varsity Offshore Sailing Team Coach Jahn Tihansky summed it up  as a “Challenging day in Pornic.”  Coach Tihansky went on to say, “They scored a 4th in first race which was consistent with earlier races.  However, they got hung out on the left side upwind in race 2 and were provided with no lanes to get back, which combined with lackluster speed resulted in an 11th place.   For the 3rd race, all crews were soaked and I saw no smiles even on the winning French team.  Our guys had a reasonable race but didn’t have the speed to break the top 5 and finished 6th.”  

The future is bright.  The team is currently in 3rd, one point out of second and while the French team from EuroMed has won almost every race they have shown that they can make big mistakes – including an OCS.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for the breeze to come on with an approaching storm.  In fact the start of the Mini Transat race (racing Mini class 6.5 meter singlehanded boats from a port just north of Pornic across the Atlantic to the Caribbean) has been postponed due to this storm.  It is supposed to skirt the racing area tomorrow and Thursday.

Here is a great video interview with the skipper of the USNA team from an earlier practice day.