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Sarah-Quita Offringa & Julien Quentel Crowned Champions of Japan

The PWA received an extremely warm welcome upon their return to Japan for the first time in 24 years and while the wind wasn’t always on our side during the last six days - the Fly! ANA PWA World Cup was extremely well supported by the locals, who clearly loved having their windsurfing idols on their home beach - while showing that windsurfing is alive and well in Japan.

Thankfully, there was just enough wind to gain results in both the men’s and women’s fleets, which saw Sarah-Quita Offringa and Julien Quentel claim their places on the top of the prestigious podium after winning the sole elimination completed in each division.

When the wind remained too light for slalom, foiling took centre stage and over the last 6 days, 7 races were completed and after showing an unbelievable level of consistency, Antoine Questel walks away from the foil exhibition with top honours after recording counting results of 2 victories and three 2nd’s. Although he was fortunate that the 8th race couldn’t be completed as the 32-year-old was disqualified for a premature start, which would’ve opened the door for Sebastian Kornum, Antoine Albeau and Gonzalo Costa Hoevel, who finished second, third and fourth respectively.

Women's

Sarah-Quita Offringa consolidates her place at the top of the rankings after producing another dominant performance to preserve her perfect record so far this season, which has seen her win every heat she has sailed in 2017. Offringa is the reigning world champion and it looks as though it’s going to be very hard for anyone to stop her now with two events to go.

Sarah-Quita Offringa on her perfect start to the year:

“I’m feeling good. I’m happy to have won the second event. Even though we’ve only had two races overall because there’s really been no room for error as if you make a mistake it's immediately over. So, in that regard, I’m very happy to have won the opening two events. After this, we only have two more events - Denmark and New Caledonia - which I’m looking forward to. I just really want to get on the water and race more because it’s really challenging now to be on the water with all the girls, which makes it so much fun to race. For now, though I’ll switch my focus to wave and freestyle.”

Lena Erdil remains Offringa’s closest rival after backing up her solid second place in South Korea by securing the final place on the podium here in Japan, but the 28-year-old will have her work cut out if she wants to stop Offringa this season with the Aruban gem opening a 3.6 point advantage at the top of the rankings.

Esther de Geus will have breathed a sigh of relief that the second elimination couldn’t be completed after missing out on the winners’ final for the first time this season, but as a result, she walks away with 5th place, which sees her rise to 3rd overall. The 25-year-old has made a huge amount of progress over the winter and looks set to be battling it out for the podium places.

Delphine Cousin Questel produced an almost perfect response, after missing out on the winners’ final in South Korea, as she bounced back to claim second place to kick start her season. The former two-time world champion still has no room for error in the remaining two events, but she has at least giving herself a fighting chance of being involved at the business end of the season. After her second place in Japan, Cousin Questel rises to 5th overall.

Meanwhile, Maëlle Guilbaud continued her excellent start to the season and the 20-year-old is showing the kind of consistency necessary to challenge for the overall podium, while also emerging as one of the most exciting young talents on the tour. After the opening two events, Guilbaud is tied with Esther de Geus in 3rd.

Men's

Last year’s world No.4 - Julien Quentel - makes a flying start to the year with the man from Saint Maarten claiming the opening bullet of the season and with just the one race so far in 2017, Quentel takes the early season lead. The 30-year-old has been training hard over the winter, while consciously trying to be more aggressive on the water and added:

“I’m very happy because in the past I’ve made okay starts to the season, but nothing exceptional, so to start the season with a win is brilliant. Now I hope that Costa Brava is windy and we can get more racing in. I’ve been training hard over the winter so it’s nice to see it pay off with the result here. I spent one month in South Africa training wave and slalom and then one month in Tenerife with Jordy [Vonk] training with the TWS - where I focused on starts.”

When asked about if he is sailing more aggressively while competing Quentel said: “Yes, for sure. Before I wasn’t pushing 100% as hard as I can, but I’ve realized that if I want to win, then I need to treat it like a job and understand that on the water friendships are put aside for a moment while competing, but once back on the beach I’m friends with everyone.”

Jordy Vonk made a statement of intent before the start of the season by making it clear that he’s a man on a mission and he’s certainly lived up to it so far. The flying Dutchman looked dangerous in South Korea and he continued that blistering form here to secure second place, which is the 23-year-olds first ever podium on the PWA World Tour and he was understandably delighted saying: “Oh my god I’m super, super stoked, especially after just missing out in Costa Brava last year, so to make it now is just amazing.”

Twenty-three time-world champion - Antoine Albeau - completes the prestigious podium to make a solid start to the season. The 44-year-old shows no signs of slowing down and he looks set for another title run in and you can expect to see him heavily involved in Costa Brava as well.

Finian Maynard may still be a bit disappointed that a clump of seaweed on the final reach cost him a place on the podium to Albeau, but 4th place still represents his best result since 2012. The 42-year-old shredded 10 kilos during the winter and he’ll be happy to see his hard work already paying off. Andrea Rosati also records his best result for a few seasons by kicking off the season with a super 5th place.

Meanwhile, reigning world champion and vice-world champion - Matteo Iachino and Pierre Mortefon - had to settle for 6th and 7th place respectively, with seaweed causing havoc, but you can be sure that in Costa Brava both of them will be gunning for the top and both remain two of the favorites for the title despite the result here.

Gonzalo Costa Hoevel is another sailor to have been impeded by the seaweed. The Argentine made the best start to the winners’ final, but soon saw his chances wilt away, but he still kicks off the season with an 8th place.

Last year’s world No.3 - Ross Williams - held off a stern challenge from Sebastian Kördel in the losers’ final, so the Brit starts the year with a 9th place, with Kördel completing the top 10.

The PWA would like to extend their thanks to all of the sponsors who made the event possible - especially Fly! ANA - and also to the Japanese people for their fantastic reception and hospitality.

After the Asian leg of this year’s world tour, the world’s best slalom sailors will be heading back to Europe. The next installment of slalom and foiling is just a week away - as the men prepare for their third event of the year on the sunny shores of Costa Brava, Spain. Make sure you stay tuned to PWA World Tour.com between the 23rd-28th May to stay up to date with the all the latest developments.

Result 2017 Fly! ANA Yokosuka PWA World Cup - Women’s Slalom1st Sarah-Quita Offringa2nd Delphine Cousin3rd Lena Erdil4th Maëlle Guilbaud5th Esther de Geus6th Fulya Ünlü7th Çağla Kubat8th Ayako Suzuki9th Fujiko Onishi10th Mio Anayama

Current Ranking 2017 Women’s PWA Slalom World Tour:

1st Sarah-Quita Offringa2nd Lena Erdil3rd Esther de Geus3rd Maëlle Guilbaud5th Delphine Cousin

Result 2017 Fly! ANA Yokosuka PWA World Cup - Men’s Slalom

1st Julien Quentel2nd Jordy Vonk 3rd Antoine Albeau4th Finian Maynard5th Andrea Rosati6th Matteo Iachino7th Pierre Mortefon8th Gonzalo Costa Hoevel9th Ross Williams10th Sebastian Kördel

Result 2017 Fly! ANA Yokosuka PWA World Cup - Foil Exhibition

1st Antoine Questel2nd Sebastian Kornum3rd Antoine Albeau4th Gonzalo Costa Hoevel5th Mateus Isaac6th Malte Reuscher7th William Huppert8th Maciek Rutkowski9th Nicolas Warembourg10th Amado Vrieswijk

Day 5: Interview with Lena Erdil and Premiere of her new Movie ‘Windsurfing Game’ while Antoine Questel Flies into Foil Lead

Unfortunately the forecast for the penultimate day of the 2017 Fly! ANA Yokosuka PWA World Cup proved to be inaccurate again with the wind never rising above 10 knots - meaning the men’s and women’s slalom fleets stayed on hold for the day.

Instead the sailors involved in the foiling exhibition took centre stage once again as a further 4 races were completed in light winds - generally between 4-9 knots. After a rousing performance yesterday, Antoine Albeau, who was leading the foil rankings overnight - surprisingly failed to win a race today as he recorded two, 3rd places and a 4th, which has seen him fall to 3rd overall with the two discards after 7 races.

Fellow countryman Antoine Questel now heads the rankings after another extremely consistent day which saw the 32-year-old record one victory, two, seconds and a third. Questel’s level of performance has been so high that out of the 7 races completed, he has only finished out of the top 3 once.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Kornum enjoyed a fine day as the Dane won the opening two races, before finishing second and fifth in the remaining races. Kornum discards the latter 5th place and currently sits in second overall just 1 point behind Questel.

Gonzalo Costa Hoevel is also still in the hunt after winning the final race of the day, but things could’ve been even better for the Argentine if he hadn't have dropped his gybe in the opening race, at the last mark when clear of the rest of the pack. After hitting something in the water in the first race yesterday, which resulted in a damaged fin box and a 9th place, Costa Hoevel has recovered nicely by not finishing outside the top 4 in the last 6 races.

After another day of waiting for the wind we took the opportunity to catch up with Turkish beauty - Lena Erdil - who is the women’s slalom vice-world champion and currently sits second in this year’s rankings after Korea. Heading into the final day in Japan, Erdil currently occupies the final place on the podium in 3rd place. You can read our interview with Lena below and also view her brilliant new movie ‘Windsurfing Game’ here:

PWA:What makes Cape Town such a special place for you that you keep going back?Lena Erdil: I think Cape Town just has it all city life, nature, wind, waves and sunshine. I think especially during the European winter it is one of the most consistently windy and wavy places in the world.

PWA: During the winter you often go away and leave the slalom equipment behind for a month or two - do you think that helps you refresh with regard to your slalom training?LE: Yes, actually I think it’s good for me to have a break from slalom sailing, especially as when I get back I still have 3 months to restart from scratch with all the new equipment. Wave sailing is more dynamic than slalom sailing and I also do a lot of SUPing, so I think my winter training is actually pretty solid the way it is. I’ve been doing it this way for a few winters now and I think what’s also particularly good is that by the time I start slalom training again I am usually super amped to get back into it.

PWA: What is it that you love about slalom sailing?LE: The thing I love most is the actual racing with the girls! We have a great level on the tour and it’s just so fun to properly fight it out with the best women in the world! Of course, preparation is a big part of that and I also enjoy the training a lot - here I would say that tuning is my least favorite and that the race simulation again isn't the best.

PWA: And then in comparison what is it that you love about wave sailing?LE: Wave sailing allows me to really push myself out of my comfort zone in pretty much every single session! I love feeling the power of the waves and I love getting humbled by the forces of nature. It’s a rush of adrenaline that is totally different to slalom sailing for me.

PWA: You started the year off with an excellent second place in Korea - are you feeling happy with your speed and setup?LE: Yes, the two races I got to sail I felt really happy with my speed and super comfortable on my Starboard iSonics’ and Point 7’s. Of course, it is hard to say more after just two races, but yeah I am happy and excited for more racing! I think in general at the moment all the sailors here are so hungry for racing, after a long winter of preparation, that its quite a strange atmosphere now, excitement mixed with frustration about the waiting… But like in the movie I can only say that that's windsurfing for you, conditions are never in our hands and all we can ever do is try and adapt as well as we possibly can to whatever the conditions through at us…

PWA: Coming back to the event here - this is the first event in Japan for 24 years - have you ever been to Japan before and what do you think of it so far?LE: I love Japan!!! I’m excited to have the World Cup here. We received such a warm welcome by the organizers and sailors, and the Japanese people, in general, are so polite and always trying to help, it feels good to be here. On the beach people are asking for autographs and pictures - it really looks like the windsurfing community in Japan is doing super well. The beach set up looks great and the only thing missing to make this a truly epic event is the wind!

I’ve been to Japan once before for 3 days in Tokyo, while on the way to New Caledonia, already then I was fascinated by the culture and especially the way in which high-technology is so effortlessly integrated into people’s everyday life.

PWA: After the conclusion of the event here you’ll then have a break until September - how will you be spending the summer months? LE: I’m going to be in Turkey for the summer at the Lena Erdil Windsurf Centre in Bodrum, I am planning to run a few advanced windsurf clinics there and generally take this chance of not having many races this summer to be more involved at the centre. I think it’s possible that I’ll add some more last minute trips to my agenda, but for now nothing is sure, to stay up to date you can follow my social media accounts:

PWA: Thanks, Lena - Good luck for the final day tomorrow!

The forecast for tomorrow looks very light on paper, but so far this week nothing has gone to forecast so anything could still happen heading into the final day. The skippers’ meeting has been called for 8:30 AM with the racing commencing from 9 AM (GMT+9) - if conditions allow.

Current Rankings Fly! ANA Yokosuka PWA World Cup - Foil Exhibition *After 7 Races

1st Antoine Questel2nd Sebastian Kornum3rd Antoine Albeau4th Gonzalo Costa Hoevel5th Mateus Isaac6th Malte Reuscher7th William Huppert8th Maciek Rutkowski9th Nicolas Warembourg10th Amado Vrieswijk

Day 4: Julien Quentel bites the bullet to take pole position

The wind eventually delivered on day four of the 2017 Fly! ANA Yokosuka PWA World Cup - allowing the first men’s elimination of the season to be completed and it was Julien Quentel, who struck to claim the opening bullet, to sit proudly at the top of the event rankings with two days to go.

Earlier in the day, the first exhibition foil races of the week were completed, which saw Antoine Albeau deliver a masterclass with two victories and a narrow second place in the three races completed. Antoine Questel won the third race to prevent Albeau from completing a quickfire hat-trick, but AA still holds a comprehensive lead at the top.

Women’s Elimination 2

In the first women’s semifinal the top seeds made no mistakes as Lena Erdil, Delphine Cousin Questel and Marion Mortefon safely navigated their way into the winners’ final along with Yuki Sunaga, who did well to battle back and grab 4th place ahead of Fulya Ünlü, who grabbed the last place qualifying place after finishing 5th.

Current event and world tour leader - Sarah-Quita Offringa - made no mistakes in the second semifinal as she went on to win the heat ahead of Maëlle Guilbaud, Fujiko Onishi, Oda Johanne and Marianne Rautelin but there was disappointment for Esther de Geus as the 25-year-old missed out on a place in the winners’ final for the first time this season.

Men’s Elimination 1 - Winners’ Final

The first attempt to run the winners’ final today resulted in a cancellation due to the wind dropping below 7 knots when Jordy Vonk was leading the heat. Upon the restart, Gonzalo Costa Hoevel timed his start perfectly, just as he had done in the previous effort, but the Argentine’s hopes were then dashed with weed around his fin, all but ending his chances of winning the final.

Instead, it was Quentel and Finian Maynard, who were left to fight it out as the fleet headed to the opening mark, but it was Quentel who seized the initiative as the man from Saint Maarten produced a textbook gybe to dive down the inside of Maynard to break into the lead. Quentel had been leading the winners’ final yesterday before it was cancelled, but there was no cancellation this time around as the 30-year-old held tight to secure the first bullet of the season.

Behind him, Vonk managed to maneuver himself into the top two and the flying Dutchman, who has looked dangerous both here and South Korea, deservedly earned himself his best result in an elimination so far as he secured a brilliant second place.

Meanwhile, Maynard, was desperately unlucky as the seaweed caused more havoc, which resulted in him losing out on 3rd place to Antoine Albeau just before the finish line with Maynard completing the course sideways. The 42-year-old was bitterly disappointed, but fourth still marks an excellent result.

Andrea Rosati secured 5th place while reigning world champion and vice-world champion - Matteo Iachino and Pierre Mortefon - had to settle for 6th and 7th place respectively.

Julien Quentel after winning the opening race: “The conditions were very hard, so I’m super happy to get the win. I went down the first reach with Finian [Maynard] and there was only a small gap but I managed to gybe inside, maybe last year I wouldn’t have gone for it, but this year I’m going for it. I’m feeling more confident on my gear this year as it's my second year with Patrik and Avanti and now I have the boards and sails that I want, so I’d like to say thanks for them both and of course thanks to my friends and family and everyone supporting me."

In the losers’ final, Ross Williams and Sebastian Kördel secured the remaining places in the top 10 - with the Brit holding off a stern challenge from the German to finish 9th and 10th, respectively, while Cyril Moussilmani and Antoine Questel were the next closest challengers.

Men's Elimination 2

The opening round of the second elimination was also completed and so far there has been no major upsets. The local Japanese sailors enjoyed an excellent first round though with Akihiko Yamada, Tomohiko Suzuki and Tomohiko Komai all advancing from Heat 1, while Norio Asano was also able to book his place in the next round.

The forecast currently predicts moderate to strong winds for tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully, there will be the opportunity to complete further eliminations. The skippers’ meeting has been called for 9:30 AM with the action commencing from 10 AM (GMT+9).

Current Event Ranking 2017 Fly! ANA Yokosuka PWA World Cup - Men’s Slalom *After One Elimination

1st Julien Quentel2nd Jordy Vonk3rd Antoine Albeau4th Finian Maynard5th Andrea Rosati6th Matteo Iachino7th Pierre Mortefon8th Gonzalo Costa Hoevel

Day 3: Sarah-Quita Offringa shines again to secure second bullet of season and brighten an otherwise gloomy day

Day three of the Fly! ANA PWA World Cup began with barely a breath of wind with Tsukuihama Beach seemingly stuck in the middle of a volatile low-pressure weather system. Over the duration of the morning and early afternoon the torrential rain continued to pour, on what was generally a miserable day, but at around 2:30 PM the forecast wind began to arrive to offer a glimmer of hope.

Racing started soon after, but conditions remained extremely tricky with gusty and shifty winds once again playing havoc at times. However, by the end of the third day, a result has been gained for the women’s fleet, while only the top 16 men remain standing in the men’s - a position which echoes memories of the recent event in South Korea.

Women’s

Sarah-Quita Offringa produced another dominant performance as she led from start to finish - just as she did in South Korea - to claim her second bullet of the season in as many races. The 25-year-old has made the perfect start to her title defence and if she continues this rich vein of form it is extremely difficult to see anyone stopping her from claiming a hat-trick of world titles.

After missing out on the winners’ final in South Korea, due to a snapped outhaul - Delphine Cousin Questel - knew it was imperative to make a quick start here if she wanted to get her season back on track, and that’s exactly what the former two-time world champion managed to do as she hit back with a solid second place in the opening race of the week.

Meanwhile, Lena Erdil continued her sharp start to the season as she secured third place ahead of Maëlle Guilbaud and Esther de Geus.

Marion Mortefon, who started the season with a third place, was unhappy to miss out on the winners’ final, but she regained her composure to win the losers’ final ahead of fellow compatriot Marion Dusart and Oda Johanne.

Men’s

In the men’s draw there were plenty of changes in comparison to Korea as Sebastian Kördel, Taty Frans, Maciek Rutkowski and Marco Lang all missed out on a place in the winners’ final this time around.

Today also saw a mixture of fortune. In Heat 5 - Nicolas Warembourg was on the unfortunate side of luck, as when the Frenchman was qualifying for the quarterfinals, he was impeded by weed around his fin, which cost him dearly as Enrico Marotti, Josh Angulo, Benjamin Augé and Andrea Rosati all qualified - with the real tale being that Rosati, who would’ve otherwise missed out, then going on to qualify for the winners’ final.

Vice-world champion Pierre Mortefon produced a great piece of work late on in Heat 10 as he fought back to snatch the final qualifying place into the semifinals from Maciek Rutkowski. After a slightly slow start, Mortefon then recaptured the form expected of him as he went on to win his semifinal to comfortably qualify for the winners’ final.

In the first semifinal - Josh Angulo and Ross Williams - were both disqualified for premature starts, while Finian Maynard was fortunate that his premature start was overturned due to the wind being deemed unsuitable in the run up to the next start. The 42-year-old has lost 10 kilos over the winter and he’s already starting to see the fruits of his labour after booking his place in the winners’ final as he, Mortefon, Gonzalo Costa Hoevel and Rosati all advanced from Heat 13.

There was further drama in Heat 14, which almost proved to be the Heat of Doom again, with several efforts being needed to successfully complete the heat.

On once occasion, Antoine Albeau, looked to be comfortably qualifying for the final, until getting caught out by the weed as he rounded the third buoy, which caused him to go over the handlebars and allow his rivals to overtake. Luckily for AA a wind shift on the last reach meant that several sailors were unable to finish the course and a resail was called for, which was extremely harsh on Nico Prien, who had sailed fantastically to secure third place - and a spot in the final - only to see his hard work undone through no fault of his own.

Upon the resail Jordy Vonk produced a brilliant performance to win the heat ahead of reigning world champion - Matteo Iachino - and Albeau, while there was an amazing cat and mouse battle for the remaining spot in the final between Julien Quentel and Antoine Questel, which the man from Saint Maarten eventually won.

The winners’ final was started on a couple of times, but unfortunately, on both occasions, it had to be cancelled due to the wind dropping below 7 knots. With the light quickly fading and the boats needing to return to harbor the competition was officially called off at 6:15 PM.

The forecast for tomorrow shows the possibility of some marginal wind in the morning with northerly winds of 12-19 knots currently being predicted. With this in mind, the skippers’ meeting has been called for 7:30 AM with the action commencing from 8 AM (GMT+9) - if conditions allow.

Current Event Ranking 2017 Fly! ANA Yokosuka PWA World Cup - *After One Elimination

1st Sarah-Quita Offringa2nd Delphine Cousin3rd Lena Erdil4th Maëlle Guilbaud5th Esther de Geus6th Fulya Ünlü7th Çağla Kubat8th Ayako Suzuki9th Fujiko Onishi10th Mio Anayama

Day 2: The waiting game continues ahead of wet and windy Saturday

Day two of the 2017 Fly! ANA Yokosuka PWA World Cup always looked light on the forecast and that’s exactly how the day played out. During the morning the wind did briefly increase - prompting an attempt at running the first foil exhibition race of the week, but unfortunately by the time the sailors had made their way to the committee boat the wind had already dropped.

With the wind remaining on the light side a fun SUP Race was held to keep the crowds entertained during the afternoon, which saw 24 sailors competing in four teams of 6:

- Team 1: Sarah-Quita Offringa, Mathilde Zampieri, Taty Frans, Mateus Isaac, Tadanori Nakai, Haruhiko Komura.

- Team 2 - Anissa Mohrath, Marianne Rautelin, Esther de Geus, Lawrence Carey, Akiro Kudo, Alexandre Rouys.

- Team 3 - Nimet Tulumen, Ayako Suzuki, Amado Vrieswijk, Sebastian Kornum, Tomohiko Suzuki, Toru Sakai.

- Team 4 - Oda Johanne, Yuki Sunaga, Ingmar Daldorf, Koji Kano , Jay Lee and Tomonori Anami.

Team 2 and 3 successfully booked their places in the final, but it was Team 2 who made the better start and they soon shot into a significant lead thanks to Alexandre Rouys, who inflicted plenty of damage on the opening leg and it looked for all the world like they had the tie sewed up. However, Amado Vrieswijk reduced the lead and then disaster stuck for Team 2 as Lawrence Carey tried to dive onto his board for a speedy getaway, but the kiwi completely missed his board. This slightly opened the door for the beast - Sebastian Kornum - but he still had a lot of work to do. The Dane turned on the afterburners and by the time they reached the mark, Kornum, was close enough to put Carey under pressure and he cracked as he fell at the buoy to allow Kornum to paddle down the final reach to claim an unlikely victory for Team 3.

With the conditions showing no sign of improvement the sailors were released for the day at 5:15 PM. Hopes are now pinned on tomorrow, which looks as though it could be a wet and windy Saturday on the current forecast with winds of 25-37 knots being predicted. However, the amount of rain accompanying the wind is of concern with up to 9mm of rain being forecast at 1 PM. That weather system still looks very volatile, so it’s going to depend on how it tracks as to what conditions present themselves, but hopefully, there will be some opportunity to kick start the racing. The skippers’ meeting has been called for 9 AM tomorrow morning with the action commencing from 9:30 AM (GMT+9) - if conditions allow.

Day 1: Quiet Start to Proceedings

The forecast for the inaugural day of the Fly! ANA Yokosuka PWA World Cup looked extremely positive with winds of up to almost 30 knots being predicted by the evening. Unfortunately, though the forecast never materialized meaning the men’s and women’s slalom fleets remained on hold.

However, while the wind may not have played ball, the opening day was still well attended with plenty of interest in the first PWA World Cup in Japan for over 24 years - showing that windsurfing is still alive and well here.

As the afternoon progressed the wind remained very light, so Bonaire’s Taty Frans and Amado Vrieswijk, who is the freestyle vice-world champion — hit the water to provide the entertainment for the crowds with an explosive tow-in show.

At 5 PM the wind did eventually swing to the south-south-west, which prompted a few sailors to sneak out on the water, but it remained far too light to ever realistically threaten the racing starting.

The forecast for tomorrow looks very light on paper, but as today has shown the forecast can be completely wrong, so you never know what’s going to happen. The best hope on the current forecast looks as though it will be Saturday - although it looks like there is quite a volatile weather system so it will depend on how that low pressure tracks through. The sailors will meet again at 9 AM tomorrow morning for the skippers’ meeting with the first possible start at 9:30 AM (GMT+9).

- Text and pictures are courtesy of John Carter / PWA World Tour -