KATANA IS THE BEST IN DISPLACEMENT MODE SAILING IN PORTOROZ

Another day of light wind in Portoroz, Slovenia, for Grand Prix 4 of the 2023 Algebris 69F Cup. The six teams here from five nations had to fight again with the natural element, a breeze that has never gone above 8 knots, but mostly stayed around 5/7 and only allowed foiling in two of the five races. Nonetheless the 69F performs really well in displacement mode, and they were just as enjoyable, especially in the upwind legs; the non-foiling races are far more technical, and the teams’ tactical skills really make the difference between a good and a bad result. Today the wind was particularly shifty and the ones who read it the best were the Swiss of Katana Sailing with Enzo Belanger, Simone Salvà and Jann Schupbach, with a win, two seconds and a third place.

“It was a really tricky day, we’ve got some foiling in, but we were all up and down the foils. We are happy to have managed the day quite well and we are quite satisfied after two days of racing here in Portoroz, just hoping for some more wind tomorrow to finish off this GP4”, commented Jann Schupbach, Katana Sailing flight controller.

Rum Runners with Rocco Falcone at the helm are sitting in the second position after seven races and Groupe Atlantic slipped down to the third spot due to a peculiar start in today’s fifth and last race: they were windward to the fleet on starboard, sailing on everyone’s bows right on the starting line infringing more than one rules and ending up also being OCS.

Tomorrow’s forecast is really uncertain, with some stormy activity taking place over night and then again in the afternoon. The morning looks like the only viable moment for the last six races scheduled for the Algbebris 69F Cup GP4 in Portoroz, Slovenia.