Rolex TP52 Global Championship

Dawn broke with a windless, overcast sky, and a Low Pressure system positioned to the south of Sardinia bringing with it a day of, frankly, horrible weather. The competing crews were kept ashore until 1230 by Peter Craig and his team of race officials to allow some wind to fill in. It eventually did from the northwest, and at 1415 the first of two windward leeward races got underway in about 7 knots. Both courses today were two-lap courses, the first with a 1.5 nautical mile leg and the second race with a 2.2 nm leg. Race winners were Patches who, after a moderate start position, found themselves on the correct side of a right-hand swing in the wind that saw boats on the left side of the course of the first beat under-laying the mark by some distance, and, in the second race - a much tighter affair - Artemis, who had been in second for much of the race before slipping past Mutua Madrilena (CHI) on the final run home.