The Wave Muscat Sailing Team

Up Close with Francesco Bruni

The battle to decide who will be King of the Mountain began today with MRT taking three victories from five races in strong but shifty conditions in the St Moritz.

The tricky mountain breeze coupled with the custom designed Blu26 Swiss lake boats provided all twelve teams with a tough and tiring day of racing. With the racing being held on such a small lake, and in such strong, shifty conditions, the races are over in the blink of an eye and there is never a chance to sit comfortably in front. MRT won all of their prestarts today, but the races were far from over with almost every race seeing multiple lead changes, and in some cases multiple penalties.

With the team’s pitman, Tudur Owen acting as a coach for this event, stepping back onto the Tour has come much easier than before.

“Obviously I would prefer to be sailing” said Owen after the day’s racing, “but this is in the best interest of the team – keeping the consistency between 4 and 5 man boats so that the trimmer and tactician don’t change. It also gives me the chance to watch the guys sailing from a different perspective. We feel that the spotter/coach role is an important one with the differences between the teams on the Tour being so marginal, because I can pick up things that the team would probably have otherwise missed.”

Tomorrow’s racing starts late for the team who are sitting out for 6 flights.