Americans grab the lead

GBR's man on two hulls Mark Bulkeley recounts their first day at the Tornado Worlds in Palma

Following immediately on from the Princess Sofia Trophy in the Bay of Palma are the Tornado World where 62 boats from 24 countries had their first races today in a 8-10 knot sea breeze that picked up late in the morning.

GBR Olympic crew Mark Bulkeley reports on how he and Leigh McMillan got on today:

"Race 1 started at the first attempt, and we got a great start from the middle of the line and headed into the shore line looking for more pressure. We lifted off the boats at the pin end and did find more pressure, however when we tacked out on the port lay line there was a big right shift and all of a sudden the boats on the right looked favoured. Billy Besson rounded first but was over the line at the start. Santiago Lange from Argentina was second and would eventually take the race on the final downwind leg. We rounded the top mark around 17th and fought back all race to finish 12th, however it could have been an 8th but for a poor third upwind leg. Other notable results from race 1 included Oskar Johansson from Canada and Yann Guichard with a 3 and 4 respectively. John Lovell fought back to 5th and Bundock to 8th.

"For the second race the breeze had built a little and we again had an amazing start. Pinching out Roman Hagara we sailed out to the left with good pace, we wanted to tack out to the right but delayed this move until a clear lane was available. Unfortunately this was too late as again the right was favoured. Lovell and Ogletree hit the right perfectly and then judged the lay line spot on to lead the fleet by some margin. They would not lose their grip on this lead.



Above: Mitch Booth and Herbert Dercksen

"We rounded the top mark around 8th, just ahead of Darren Bundock. The rest of the race was a pursuit out to the right hand side, however clear air was also essential and it was a fine balance between the two that seemed to work. We chipped away at the leaders taking boats by judging lay lines well. On the final beat the wind had gone 20 degrees right under the influence of a cloud, and this opened up some opportunities, we tacked early on the leaders and went out into the old wind and made some nice gains rounding the top mark for the last time 5th. We then set about chasing Roman Hagara of Austria. He gybe set and we carried on and by the finish we just pipped him to finish 4th.

"In the overall results it is Lovell and Ogletree who lead with a 5.1 followed by Lange / Espinola on 9 points with a 1.8. There are then four boats within 1 point in 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. It was a really tricky day with lots of holes in the wind and some notable shifts, so we are quite happy with the start we have made to the regatta."

Two races are scheduled for tomorrow.

Results

Pos	Sail	Crew	R1	R2	Tot
1	USA 808	John Lovell/Charlie Ogletree	5	1	6
2	ARG 1	Santiago Lange/Carlos Espinola	1	8	9
3	FRA 28	Yann Guichard/Christophe Espagnon	4	11	15
4	ESP 1	Fernando Echavarri/Anton Paz	9	6	15
5	AUS 967	Darren Bundock/John Forbes	8	7	15
6	GBR 420	Leigh McMillan/Mark Bulkeley	12	4	16
7	AUT 380	Roman Hagara/Hans Peter Steinacher	13	5	18
8	FRA 279	Xavier Revil/Laurent Guillemette	10	9	19
9	CAN 369	Oskar Johansson/John Curtis	3	19	22
10	PUR 1	Enrique Figueroa/Jorge Hernandez	7	17	24
11	FRA 295	Olivier Backes/Laurent Voiron	22	3	25
12	FRA 293	François Gabart/David Romain	2	25	27
13	POR 2	Hugo Rocha/Luis Beito	14	13	27
14	RUS 007	Sergey Dzienbaev/Oleg Ryazantsev	15	RDG	30
15	FRA 282	Matthieu Souben/Gurvan Bontemps	21	10	31
16	SLO 1	Dusan Puh/Alan Biderman	31	2	33
17	GER 1087	Johannes Polgar/Carsten Happel	23	12	35
18	NZL 87	Aaron McIntosh/Mark/Kennedy	17	20	37
19	GRE 1	Dimitris Theodorakis/Andonis Bougiouris	19	18	37
20	ESP 23	Toni Rivas/Fabian Escude	6	33	39
21	SWE 201	Hans Wallen/Christoffer Rappe	18	21	39
22	RUS 97	Andrey Kirilyuk/Valery Ushkov	29	14	43
23	SWE 199	Martin Strandberg/Kristian Mattsson	32	16	48
24	ESP 121	Jose Mª Ponce/Ramon Illan	11	39	50
25	NED 1	Mitch Booth/Herbert Dercksen	20	32	52
26	NED 162	Sven Karsenbarg/Mischa Heemskerk	38	15	53
27	ITA 257	Francesco Marcolini/Edoardo Bianchi	27	27	54
28	ESP 2004	Enrique Garcia de Soto Lastra/Fernando Sales	26	30	56
29	ITA 5	Vincenzo Sorrentino/Giorgio Colombo	30	28	58
30	ESP 11	Manuel Calavia/Carlos Varea	37	22	59
31	ESP 7	Francisco Sanchez Ferrer/Juan Manuel Barrionuevo	24	36	60
32	BRA 37	Mauricio Santa Cruz/Henrique Pelicano	35	26	61
33	DEN 1	Peder Ronholt/Soren Schmidt Jorgensen	33	29	62
34	FRA 278	Guillaume Coyon/Lucas Millieret	25	38	63
35	CAN 1	Eric Holden/Mark Coakley	34	31	65
36	FRA 260	Moana Vaireaux/Romain Petit	28	42	70
37	FRA 276	Baptiste Balzeau/Gaël Ledoux	42	35	77
38	AUT 381	Thomas Zajac/Thomas Czajka	16	DNC	79
39	SUI 227	Martin Rusterholz/Michiel Fehr	36	43	79
40	RUS 77	Konstantin Emelyanov/Alexander Yanin	43	37	80
41	UKR 21	Stanislav Golimbiyevskyy/Oleksandr Meninkov	39	41	80
42	GER 1090	Roland Gaebler/Gunnar Struckmann	48	34	82
43	FRA 286	François Morvan/Matthieu Vandame	OCS	23	86
44	GBR 415	Leo Farrow/Tristan Lamb	40	46	86
45	FRA 281	Besson/Arnaud Jarlegan	OCS	24	87
46	BRA 52	Luiz Eduardo Adler Pimentel Duarte/Gualberto Naldi	41	47	88
47	GBR 404	Jonathan Hutchcroft/Marcus Lynch	51	40	91
48	ESP 5	Bernardo Benítez/Miguel Quintana	44	50	94
49	GBR 402	Andrew Walsh/Ed Barney	46	48	94
50	BRA 51	Jose Roberto de Jesus/Fernando Jacobina	52	45	97
51	GRE 11	Constantinos Gkiris/Andreas Tsamitas	45	52	97
52	HUN 1	Arpad Litkey/Peter Szaniszlo	49	49	98
53	CZE 52	Zdenek Pavlis/Jri Pavlis	47	53	100
54	ITA 7	Giuseppe Angilella/Giovanni Barraja	50	51	101
55	RUS 27	Alexey Chekrygin/Sergey Bogatkin	OCS	44	107
56	GBR 398	John Bernard Ready/Angus Roberts	54	54	108
57	GER 1024	Günter Mörtl/Walter Kerf	56	55	111
58	ESP 277	Pablo de Villar Farrés/Nicolás de Virgiliis	53	DNF	116
59	BRA 43	Alex Leal/Thiago K Leal	55	DSQ	118
60	ESP 3	Oriol Bou Bohé/Eduardo Olmos	DNC	56	119
61	POR 1	Diego Cayolla/Nuno Barretto	RDG	RDG	126
61	GRE 7	Iordanis Paschalides/Christos Garefis	DNF	DNF	126