The racing battle at Helsinki kicked off in perfect conditions on September 1, 2016. The sailors enjoyed the sunny conditions and the 20+ knots wind in gusts that made even the audiences thrilled to bits. There is no other popular venue for stadium sailing in Europe than Hernesaaren Ranta.
The GAC Pinder lead by Ian Williams is touted as the favorites to win the M32s and they lived up to the expectations of the crowd. This British racing team had their first performance on the Helsinki circuit in 2015 and has returned this year with much vigor. The series leader of the M32 race was the GAC Pinder team and their experienced crew members are happy with the performance that they had put up on the first day. They bet the other teams, six times out of the seven races and won the praises of everyone present at Hernesaaren Ranta.
They were followed by the Johnie Berntsson’s Flux team, also backed by Trogir Yacht Charter, in the second position after day 1. The third and the fourth positions were bagged by the Typhoon X racing team led by Mans Holmberg and Niklas Dackhammar’s Essiq racing team respectively. It looks like the GAC Pinder would get some stiff competition from the Typhoon X racing team. They showed their sailing prowess by performing a cartwheel during the last race of the day.
The race will be taking place on 2nd and 3rd September at the Hernesaaren Ranta sailing stadium. It would be hard to think of anyone getting the better of GAC Pinder from Britain to win the M32s. At present, the Ian Williams led team is on 9 points, followed by the Flux team with 18 points. The spectators had a whale of a time on the first day in Helsinki and expect more to come from the sailing teams in the next two days.