Emirates GBR is currently in fourth place after the first day of racing at the KPMG Sydney Sail Grand Prix.
Emirates GBR Driver Dylan Fletcher said his team would “need a strong performance tomorrow to be where we want to be”, to make it to the all-important three-boat $400,000 (£296,000) event final.
With 23 points, Emirates GBR sits behind Sweden’s Artemis who are in third with 26 points, Australia’s BONDS Flying Roos on 28 points in second and event leaders Los Gallos of Spain who were in top form and have 32 points.
Difficult light and patchy – it’s not usually like this – winds, meant teams were foiling at full speed one moment, and then parked up in desperate search of breeze the next.
“We had some good moments but unfortunately a few too many snakes and not enough ladders, so it wasn’t really the day we were looking for,” Fletcher said. “It was really patchy and hard to know exactly what the wind was going to do.”
“It felt like we couldn’t catch a break and we got caught in a few bad places when we were originally leading the pack and then got overtaken.”
Teams reduce crew size
Due to the light-wind conditions the crew size was reduced from the usual six people on-board, to five for the first and second races, then again to four for the third and fourth races.
This was the first time Emirates GBR had sailed in reduced crew configurations with its new Wing Trimmer, Stuart Bithell.
“We had a few crew changes and different configurations to deal with,” Fletcher said “But it felt like we were doing a lot of things well, especially for the first time with Stu in those reduced configs.”
Racing resumes Sunday, when there will be three full fleet races before the top three teams form across the weekend take part in the winner-takes-all event final race.
Emirates GBR Helm Dylan Fletcher and crew Hannah Mills, Stuart Bithell, Ellie Aldridge, Neil Hunter, Nick Hutton, Luke Parkinson and Ben Cornish.
