Once again, the vagaries of the weather played havoc with the fleet on Day 2 of racing at the 2023 Mixed 470 European Championship in San Remo, Italy where the only race of the day was abandoned in its final stages.

It was another long and frustrating day for all and a slightly disappointing one for Australia’s top ranked pair, Nia Jerwood and Conor Nicholas (Australian Sailing Squad), who were sitting in second place when officials were forced to cancel the race.

As Tokyo Olympian, Jerwood, explained: “It was a long day of patience. We arrived at the Club at 7:30am this morning and launched at 12pm when the wind came in. Our race course was in between two gradient wind systems, one from the east and one in a westerly direction.”

Nia Jerwood and Conor Nicholas (Aus 5) off the start in a big swell - A Lelli pic

The two fleets, Yellow and Blue, waited on the water while opposing winds fought for dominance. After three and a half hours, the westerly won, holding in at 20 knots, accompanied by a big rolling swell. Throughout the race, the wind went from nothing to 26 knots with massive shifts.

“During the race we stuck to our plan. We went fast and were in second place going into the final downwind leg. Unfortunately, the wind did a 180 degree shift back to the east coming in at 15 knots and the race was abandoned,” Jerwood said.

“As frustrating as it was, we were really happy with our race and enjoyed catching some of the biggest swell we have sailed in for a long time.”

The end result is that the leaderboard remains unchanged from yesterday. Officials plan for a further three races for Wednesday local time, starting from 11am. A minimum of four races must be sailed to complete qualifying before the 65 entries are divided in to Gold and Silver fleets for the finals, which are due to start on Wednesday.

Sophie Jackson and Angus Higgins head out to the race area - A Lelli pic

The Mixed 470 European Championship is being conducted by Yacht Club Sanremo, in co-operation with the Italian 470 Class Association and the International 470 Class Association, and under the auspices of the Italian Sailing Federation (FIV).

Australian Sailing Squad (ASS) and Australian Sailing Futures (ASF) sailors results in Hyeres:

470 - 65 entries – 2 races

40^th Nia Jerwood and Conor Nicholas (ASS) 18, 19 = 37

42^nd Sophie Jackson and Angus Higgins (ASF) 25, 14 = 39

57^th James Jackson and Lily Richardson 26, 29 = 55

Full entry list and all information: https://2023europeans.470.org/en/default/races/race

By Di Pearson/AST media