Getting tense

At 6p the first Open Class ships are on final glide. The Open Class task a 490 km assigned speed task. Open Class left fairly early, about one to one and a half hours before 15m and 18m.

The cirrus coming in from the west is getting thicker and it doesn't look like the blue thermals will last much longer. The wind is now fairly strong (about 15 kts from the south) which will be a cross wind for the competitors on final glide.

Just got word that Martin Theisinger (Germany), one of the top 15m pilots landed out. So far, there have been six land-outs in 15m, the US pilots Karl Striedieck and Gary Ittner among them. In 18m there have been 3 land-outs.

The open ships coming in have speeds in the range of 90 kph. I haven't seen anybody dropping water yet. This is not good news for the other classes. It is starting to look more and more like a mass land-out at least in 15m. Keep your fingers crossed!

Here another view of a blue thermal gaggle