Posted12 September 2022, 00:13
SailWith Nathan Outteridge at the helm, Switzerland is unlucky
Despite the contribution of the Australian, Switzerland Sail GP alternated good and bad in extreme conditions near Saint-Tropez.
Nathan Outteridge (left) was at the helm of the Swiss boat this weekend in Saint-Tropez.
imago images/AAP
A day at high altitude and another at water level. The Gulf of Saint-Tropez has offered an incredible playground for teams competing on the international Sail GP circuit. The Formula 1 of the seas reached, on Saturday, crazy speeds, unprecedented in racing. In front of its public, it is France which very closely approached 100km/h! 99.94 km/h, very exactly, reached during the 3rd race of a crazy Saturday. For the large audience, massed at the bottom of the citadel, the spectacle was simply grandiose.
In the berserk fleet, the Swiss held their ground and were able to beef up their game, as they wanted, with Nathan Outteridge at the helm. But the team, skippered by Sébastien Schneiter also had bad luck in the South of France.
Switzerland penalized from training
It had started during the training day on Friday, when a collision with the Americans, big winners of this Grand Prix, earned the Swiss a 4-point penalty even before the start of the regatta. The bad luck also stuck to the crew during round 2, disputed at high speed. The injury of grinder Eliot Merceron forced Switzerland Sail GP to retire despite the team being perfectly in the game.
And it ended on Sunday, with the removal of heat No 5 for overtime (to stick to the strict television broadcasting schedules, a heat cannot exceed 15 minutes in Sail GP) while a 4th place was within range of the Swiss.
An eighth place finish
Switzerland must be content with 8th place with its 16 units. But with the four penalty points less, it would have finished 6th ahead of Spain and Denmark (both 18 pts). A result which would have been much more in line with the progress seen both in the strong wind on Saturday and in the very light air on Sunday (4th in round 4).
It is undoubtedly with these positive aspects in mind that the team led by Tanguy Cariou will approach the next deadline in two weeks in Cadiz.
