Lack of wind stops second leg of Vuelta España a Vela halfway

First it was too much wind and then too little. After various postponements due to extremely strong wind in the strait of Gibraltar, the Vuelta España a Vela, suffered from the lack of it. The 9 boats left Cadiz on Friday at 9am and headed east to Malaga, approximately 130 miles away. Unlike the previous days, conditions in Tarifa were strong but manageable, winds never passed 25 knots and the boats sailed off the city at around 11pm on Friday.

From that point they went on to Gibraltar with a calm sea and dying breeze. A couple of miles after Gibraltar and approximately halfway through the leg, the fleet got trapped in a wind hole that lasted for more than 4 hours. At around 3am on Saturday morning the race committee took the decision to "neutralize" (wording in original Spanish press release) the race at that point. As a result, the standings of the second leg were the ones at that point, the leg was over and the boats were given the right to continue to Malaga using their engines.

They arrived in Malaga on Saturday late afternoon, a clear indication it would have been impossible to meet the deadlines had they continued sailing. Nevertheless, the organization should have thought of these possible problems in advance, given the fact most of the crews are amateurs and the boats are not TP52s or GP42s. The next leg (Malaga-Cartagena) is scheduled to start on Sunday at 11am.

General standings of the Vuelta España a Vela after two legs
1. ASON / VISIÓN CRUCEROS 3 points
2. CAFÉ TOSCAF 6 points
2. ACTUALIDAD / WIND CAT HOUSE 6 points
4. AS / ESTEPONA COSTA DEL SOL 8 points
5. TELENO 9 points
6. EUROSPORT 11 points
7. ENDESA CEUTA 13 points
8. TURISMOCASTILLAYLEON.COM 16 points
9. EUROPCAR 18 points