On Sunday 28 March the Paris 2024 Olympic regatta begins with four events. According to windy.com, Marseille will be in a stable high-pressure system from the Sunday until Wednesday 31 March.
A summer high pressure system means still, close days, and could upend the regatta. From Thursday it’s expected to get windy.
The first day of scheduled racing looks ok, with raceable winds in the lighter end of the spectrum. Days two through four look dire, and the fleet will be hoping for a sea breeze to fill in, which often isn’t the focus of the big weather models as it’s such a local phenomenon.
Light winds at the 2024 European Championship could be a guide for how these Olympics might turn out.
Team GB’s John Gimson and Anna Burnet took the silver in the Nacra 17 World championship, James Peters and Fynn Sterritt the gold in the men’s 49er Europeans, and Freya Black and Saskia Tidey took bronze in the women’s 49erFX Europeans to round off a successful week ahead of the Paris Games.
Gimson commented at that event . . . [The Nacra] “It’s kind of three different boats, because in no wind the Nacra goes from being pretty much a keelboat until you lift one hull and it becomes a catamaran, and then when you’re fully foiling it’s very different again. So we’re trying to make ourselves as all-round as we can, which means you have to make compromises somewhere.”
In addition to the scheduled racing days there are two reserve days per event.
Those reserve days may become key to a fair regatta, let’s just hope the wind is better than forecast and we can all watch some great racing.
TV Schedule and Coverage
While we do not yet know the full TV schedule, there are rumors the coverage game has been stepped up considerably. The Olympic Broadcasting System (OBS) has contracted Liveline from SailGP.
Assuming everything works, that would make for an awesome step up in coverage with the overlayed graphics on the race course likely to really help the world understand what is going on.
It has not yet been released when the fleets will be covered, but it seems like the schedule has been spread out more than in the past. Ideally, that means OBS is planning on airing a full programme of coverage, with time built in for the heli to refuel, too.
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