As usual the programme for the day is for the fleet to run two practice starts and then the normal windward-leeward race.

The consensus is that the mistral conditions which have prevailed for the last few days have gone, and it is a stifling, hot morning as the first TP52 Series boats start to leave the dock with their media and VIP guests on board.

Cagliaria has nearly 20 miles of flat land to the north which lines up with the axis of the prevailing gradient breeze, while the thermal effects do sometimes see the breeze build to 25 knots. Certainly last season there was a good mix of everything.

Nacho Postigo (ESP) navigator Bigamist (POR):
" We are probably looking at sea breeze conditions and we have to see if the same pattern that we had last year, that the right normally pays, emerges again this time. So I think we will start with a soft kind of sea breeze, and by three or four o’clock we might see a very nice sea-breeze but by then we should be back in the harbour. The usual pattern is a weak breeze in the morning and building to late in the day, say four o’clock, sometimes about 15 knots."

Ariane Mainmare (ESP), Race Committee:
" The breeze we have just now should start to die and turn to the south. At one or two o’clock we should start to see the standard sea-breeze."

Francesco Bruni (ITA), tactician on Matador (ARG):
"This venue is very nice. It can be a little bit of everything. It can be Mistral, it can be sea-breeze for two or three days. The sea breeze can be anything from eight knots to 18 knots, so it is a very wide range, not like –say- in Palma. It also has a wide angle, going from 120 to 180 degrees, and never a one side course. One beat it can be left and the next right."

"My style is a mix of numbers and geometry and knowing the simple orientation of the wind. My strength is probably that I sail in so many different classes and events."