Day 1 of the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix Portsmouth opened in blazing sunshine and a decent seabreeze over a Mediterranean cloured sea.
With the press conference dispatched without anything revealed that startled the media, and Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal having given the British team her seal of approval . . . the game is afoot.
Plenty of action in the smaller fleets, which seemed to spread-out quickly, and the starts were still critical but less dangerous looking. Not to say that some close crossings and mark rounding got the crowd out of their seats, and the penalties flying.
In Group A, which looked the stronger group on paper, early upset came from Canada with Giles Scott holding off Spain’s Diago Botin for the first win, with the Aussie and Kiwi teams down the field.
Botin was still hot and took Race 2 ahead of New Zealand’s Peter Burling, with Australia’s Tom Slingsby in third. Giles Scott suffered in fifth.
In their final race of Day 1, Burling led Group A from line to line for a 14 sec win from the revived Scott, with Slingsby taking third. It was Botin’s turn to suffer finishing sixth.
Thus day 1 finishes with Burling leading Group A from Scott, with Botin third and Slingsby fourth.
Finishing Day 1 as Group Leaders – first two from each Group contest the Final after Sunday’s racing.
In Group B, which carried Britain’s hopes, all did not go to plan.
In the first race Taylor Canfield took the US Team to a 14 sec line to line win. Second was Nathan Outteridge’s Sweden with the Swiss of Sebastien Schneiter third.
Dylan Fletcher with Emirates GBR was fourth.
In Race 2 Outteridge shuffled the pack, taking the win ahead of Schneiter with Canfield third. The Brits showed a worrying starting effort, they started last and finished last.
And so onto the third and final race of the day. Fletcher pulled one out of the hat by starting well on the inside. Erik Heil for Germany led briefly before a spectacular near capsize puts them out of the running, and Fletcher sailed to a face saving win in front of the home crowd.
Second were Outteridge and third Canfield, to nail the Group B leads, with Schneiter taking third overall.
The last race win pulled Fletcher into fourth and an outside chance of making the cut on Sunday.
The Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix continues Sunday 26 July, with the 13 teams still split into two fleets. A further four Group races on Sunday, before the top four teams then progress into the winner-takes-all event final.