PWA ALACATI WORLD CUP 

The third day of the Pegasus Airlines PWA World Cup saw a further two eliminations completed, once the wind had settled in, after a somewhat frustrating morning. However, the wind soon swung more cross-shore which resulted in an afternoon of spectacular slalom, with high, lows and non-stop drama. By the end of the day we saw four different winners crowned as the unpredictability of the week here in Alacati continued. Winning the men’s races today were Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde) and Peter Volwater, whilst the winners of the women’s division were Karin Jaggi and Sarah-Quita Offringa.

Men’s Slalom – Elimination Three – Winners’ Final

Antoine Albeau laid down the gauntlet at the beginning of the day by winning his second successive elimination, after winning race two yesterday. The big Frenchmen wasted little time in picking up where he left off and despite Ben Van Der Steen making the best start of the fleet, Albeau had risen to the front of the pack as they approached the first mark. Over the remainder of the course Albeau cranked his way through effortless gybes as he opened up a substantial lead by the finish line.

The other major news of race three was the fact that Bjorn Dunkerbeck missed out on a place in the winners’ final after finishing sixth in heat fourteen. The terminator was then only beaten by a flying Julien Quentel (RRD / NeilPryde) in the losers’ final as he had to settle for tenth overall.

Elimination Four – Winners’ Final

The second winners’ final of the day witnessed two flying Dutchmen at the front of the fleet, but it was Peter Volwater who timed his start to perfection to lead from the outset, just ahead of Britain’s Ross Williams. Volwater handled the pressure with consummate ease as he held off his rivals to claim his first bullet of the year, after an outstanding display of sailing. His fellow countryman Ben Van Der Steen was a man on a mission and he surpassed Williams to claim second place overall. The Brit meanwhile had to settle for third, whilst Cyril Moussilmani and Dunkerbeck had their own private battle for fourth and fifth. Eventually Moussilmani managed to overtake his teammate after an exciting finale.

The fourth elimination proved to be an intriguing affair throughout as the intensity and furiousness of the heats continued to increase, which resulted in some major upsets such as Antoine Albeau, who had won two out of the three eliminations completed thus far. However on this occasion the big Frenchman failed to progress into the quarter finals after battling it out against Pierre Mortefon for the final qualifying spot, however as Albeau cranked around the final mark he fell ending all hopes of him advancing.

Antoine’s words after the day of racing:

“Today was a hard day, wind was not in the good direction and was playing with our nerves until 4pm!! 
Conditions were super gusty and in the beginning it was hard to validate some heats, but then became much better around 3pm.
I won the first final of the day, I was on my 7.8 Evo4 and 114 RRD. I had a good start with Ben VDSteen, I managed to arrive just in front of him at the 1st jibe and finished 1st.
On the 2nd slalom of the day I didn’t pass the first heat, arrived 2nd at the first jibe behing Cyril M and I got the sail of Sylvain M on my back, almost fall, when I got planing again I was 5th and couldn’t pass Pierre M.
1st and last is it a good or bad day ???”

Results After Four Elimination – Men’s Slalom

 1st Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde)

2nd Ben Van Der Steen

3rd Micah Buzianis

4th Bjorn Dunkerbeck

7th Finian Maynard (RRD / Avanti)

9th Julien Quentel (RRD / NeilPryde)