Day 3 afternoon - at 2:30 PM the men fleets got ready to race on the inside of Mondello Bay with 12- 15 knots easterly wind direction. The blue group was sent off first at 3:00 PM finally with planing conditions and smoked upwind with the right side towards the point surely the place everybody wanted to be.
The Australian Michael Lancy held the lead position for half of the first up wind then missed a shift to get back to the left side. The bouy was positioned close to the Shore line.
Towards the end of the upwind, the left side paid off well, and the German Alexander Baronjan ( called “Porni�, President of the so called “Poneyclub�) raced through the fleet rounding the top mark in third position behind Kongkong´s Ho Chi Ho first and Curro Manchon from Spain second.
Meanwhile the first start of the women was a general recall.
Leeward the yellow group started their 4th race and same tactics that paid off in the blue group worked once again. The Frenchman Nicolas Beudou (called “Bud�) picked the gusts and the shifts perfectly and lead at mark one. Coming second was the overall leader Maksim Oberemko(UKR) followed by French Nikolas Auriol. The Palermians went wild when local favourite Riccardo Giordano rounded 9th, showing that all he needs is just a little breeze to teach the fleet a few tricks.
At this time the women were also racing their 4th race and unfortunately had to face less wind than the men´s course.
French Faustine Merret again stamped her dominance with the women´s fleet coming 1st at the top mark leading all the way to the end. Second was Italian´s Alessandra Sensini and Honkong´s Lee Lei Shan ( called “ San San�) coming third.
Germany´s Amelie Lux also made the top five showing a consistant performance at the European Championships after a tough year of physical problems.
Towards the end of the race the wind almost dropped to zero, patchy and shifty wind made the last women´s downwind rather gruelling to watch.
Due to the lack of wind again male competitors find themselves waiting onshore while the women finished their race and did not get to race again.
Fresh breeze at Capo Gallo convinced the male race committee to go for another try. Although the inside bay was glassy competitors found planing conditions as sneaking around the corner of the cape.
