With a very light wind forecast for today, we figured that noon was the perfect time to send the first qualification fleet of the Chiemsee tow-in championship out on the water.
For the past years, 30 riders could compete in three qualification rounds to proceed to the big final and claim 3.000€ prize-money. This year, the fleet was cut down to 20 guys, who were selected according to their tow-in rankings from previous seasons. The top five of every fleet would pass on.
Antoine Albert (Goya/Goya), Tonky Frans (RRD/RRD), Julien Mas (JP), Amado Vrieswijk (Severne/JP), Nicolas Akgazciyan, Loick Spicher (RRD/RRD), Marco Lufen (North/Fanatic), Riccardo Marca (North/Fanatic), Max Brinnich and Eliran Levi were the first ten to battle it out for the five available places in the final. The young Israeli Levi was lucky and could fill the space of Jacopo Testa (RRD/RRD), who dropped out shortly before the competition.
The format differed slighty from last year, as the riders got the chance to use a second boat which creates a wake just big enough for the windsurfers to get a lift for more radical and higher moves. Race director Tom Hartmann pointed out, that the using the boat was not mandatory, yet more height and different maneuvres would be rewarded by the judges.
Tonky Frans with a skopu (picture by Alex Lang)
Each rider was allowed two runs, with the higher score counting. The maximum amount of points in this discipline is 60. Five judges scored the style and technical difficulty of the maneuvres, with 10 points per category being the maximum amount. The highest and lowest score get eliminated and lead to the final result.
Amado Vrieswijk, who showed a double air culo in training last weekend and who was one of the contenders for the win, lost the footstraps in both of his runs and couldn’t make it into the final. Also the other sailors, who showed decent performances like Riccardo Marca and team-mate Marco Lufen couldn’t get past the 40 point benchmark.
Riccardo Marca from Italy (picture by Alex Lang)
The top 5:
Antoine Albert from New Caledonia was going for his signature move, the skopu in his first run, without using the wave as a ramp, but couldn’t land the trick. In his second round though he went all in and circled through a mega fast burner diablo (42 points). Swiss sailor Loick Spicher was one of the few sailors going into the move regular stance. He stomped a perfect culo and scored 42,5 points. Frenchie Julien Mas, who is truly a showman when it comes to this discipline, pulled an amazing one handed air burner 360 (43,5 points). Nicolas Akgazciyan who is always one to watch out for, landed a sick air burner funnell, with one and a half rotations being completely in the air (45 points). The winning move was performed by no one less than world famous sailor Tonky Frans, who seems super comfortable on his new RRD gear. Tonky reached some serious height in a skopu which he sailed out of. 51 points were the reward for this clean trick by the Bonaierian sailor.
The top 5 of fleet number 1:
1st Tonky Frans (RRD/RRD)
2nd Nicolas Akgazciyan
3rd Julien Mas (JP)
4th Loick Spicher (RRD/RRD)
5th Antoine Albert (Goya/Goya)
Since we want to seize every possible chance for wind the race director schedulded the skippers meeting for 6.00 am tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed that we can run some heats in those early hours of the day.
Check out the action of day 2: