The first day’s racing at the Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour in Kiel was abandoned when race management, backed up by the whole fleet including Oman Sail’s Sultanate of Oman, decided that strong gusts in excess of 30 knots were not favourable for fair and safe sailing.
In the morning media and corporate sailing session, the Swiss boat Alinghi was upturned though fortunately there were no injuries and no damage to the boat.
“The gusts came from nowhere and there is little you can do to control the boats when you go from zero to 30 knots in a second,” said Sultanate of Oman skipper Leigh McMillan.
“This is the first of four days of racing and there is a lot of good competition remaining so there was no need to take any risks. For us, calling it off was the right decision but we are looking forward to tomorrow and getting some good racing in.”
Sultanate of Oman won the opening Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour event in Austria and came second to Flavio Marazzi’s Armin Strom Racing Team in Cowes but remain three points ahead at the top of the leaderboard with two events remaining, in Rome, Italy, in August and Marseille, France in September.
Racing will get underway in the second day if conditions permit. Follow the action live through the event website: http://www.gc32racing.com
