Practice race day at the RC44 Marstrand World Championships and the home of Swedish sailing delivered perfect conditions.

After three starts and one full race it was Nico Poons’ team Charisma that crossed the line in first place. Having only sailed in Sweden once before in 2009 Charisma’s tactician, Olympic Gold Medallist and America’s Cup ORACLE Team USA strategist, Tom Slingsby took todays in his stride “It was beautiful conditions. We probably had about 18 knots for all three starts and then it picked up to about 20knots on the last run which is beautiful sailing in these boats.”

As for his plan for the rest of the week Tom added, ”I don’t think we mind what Marstrand throws at us. We’re not super strong in any condition so hopefully we get a bit of everything, sunshine and wind would be ideal but we will take what ever we get.”