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Chennai, 1st October: The RIIR 2013 started off with a Practice Race today. Though the race was scheduled for 2 PM and the Principal Race Officer Ilker Bayindir with his team was out an water well before time, the wind put up an appearance a little late from 60 deg and shifted further towards East before settling down due East. After starting at around 6 knots it stayed at about 10 knots most of the afternoon before dropping to about 8 knots towards the end.
Very often many of the sailors treat the practice race just as that – practice. As Mr.Ilker Bayindir explained it is more for the officials to put everything in place rather than for the sailors. The first race for the Optimists were started off a little after 3. With the Optimists getting aggressive on the line the Race officer had to recall the fleet twice before he started with a black flag. In a black flag start if sailors are over the line before the start of the race, the sailor will straight away be disqualified and awarded penalty points. This helped in having a clean start for the Opti race after which the Laser 4.7 were started. By this time the 29ers who were to be the last class to start were impatient and were already sailing in the course.
In the Optimist class, the Malaysians displayed an excellence that portends great results for their country. Six out of the nine of them were on the top. However all of them and many other sailors did not bother to complete the race and sailed back to shore. The top Indian was Chitresh from TNSA who went on to finish the race 1st. In the laser class the Indian sailors put up a decent show and stayed on top, though the lone Malaysian girl was also among the top few. Nicholas from TNSA finished first among the laser 4.7s. The 29ers did not race today. From the Practice Race it seems Malaysia is the country to watch for in RIIR 2013, they are some of the best sailors in Asia.
Tomorrow the main races will start and 3 races are scheduled for the day. The first race of the day will be started off outside the harbour at 11:00 hours.
