This morning skippers' meeting was at 10am and our special friend showed up, THE WIND. We rigged the formula gear and started the first race at 11am. The wind was around 12 to 18 knots on the gusts and some sailors went on 12.0 while others took 11. On the first race, everyone started on starboard tack, the big difference was where to tack, as there was a shift in the middle of the course that could go in your favor, or not. Gonzalo Costa, took the bullet followed by the strong polish fleet, Michael Polanowski in second, Pawel Hlavaty in third and Hubert Mokrzycki in fourth, the fifth place went to Wilhelm Schurmann.

In the second day of race, the wind gave a rest to the sailors of the Sines Grand Prix! The best of the best of the world of formula windsurfing is gathered on the beach of São Torpes, from the 6th till the 10th of May, to dispute the first stage of the world tour. In this second day of race, although the weather reports promised a slight Northern breeze, in fact the expected wind didn’t really blow, which, however, didn’t manage to ruin the good ambience that everybody felt at the race site. At 10:00 a.m., Claudio Alessandrello, the Race Director, was already in his advanced position, while the competitors were waiting for today’s instructions concerning the regatta. Unfortunately, the wind didn’t show up! It has even threatened to do so, but that didn’t happen at all.

The IWA Windsurfing Grand Prix has kicked off in Sines, Portugal today. The event is a two-discipline regatta with a total of 30.000 Euro prize money. The event gives points for the Windsurfing Euro-Cup Slalom and Racing Rankings. It is also the first event of the new series FormulaWindsurfing GrandPrix which celebrates its debut this year. Finally the competitors receive points for the IFCA Slalom World Ranking List and the Formula Windsurfing World Ranking List.

With the Northern wind blowing cross-shore, between the 10 and 12 knots, the beach of São Torpes, Sines, became the perfect arena for this competition. Following the skippers meeting run by Race Director, Claudio Alessandrello, every sailor, who felt relaxed while waiting for the wind to show up, was informed of the schedule to develop during the first day of racing. Around 2:00 p.m., Alessandrello, sent all of the Formula Windsurfing sailors to the water, and thanks to the big and sophisticated sails of up to 12 m2, managed to complete the first race of the day, with winds between the 7 and 10 knots.

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On Day three of the IFCA Slalom World Championships the forecasts predicted good wind only in the morning. So the skippers meeting was set as early as 7:30 with the first start at 8:00. So the organization and the competitors arrived at the beach of Almanarre when it was still fully dark. But the efforts paid off! Just as planned the competition could be started in perfect slalom conditions. A total of 3 eliminations for the mens fleet and even 7 Slaloms for the womens fleet were sailed today.

The wind teased the competitors and the organisation of the IFCA Slalom World Championships almost the whole day.

Several times the riders were sent out when the race crew was sure that the conditions are stable. And as often the competitions needed to be abandoned as the wind dropped under the limit of 11 knots again. But in the evening the conditions finally improved and allowed one slalom for the men and even two for the women in wind speeds between 14 and 20 knots.