ATHENS - The notorious Meltemi wind came whipping out of the north Sunday, bringing mayhem to the sailing courses on the Saronic Gulf, capsizing at least 30 boats and giving others a competitive boost.
"They were tough conditions," said 470 skipper Paul Foerster, a four-time U.S. Olympian. "There were a lot of people turning over. . . . It was just totally different than anyone had seen."
Foerster and Kevin Burnham of Miami, former silver medalists, were lucky. Their 15-foot boat swamped but didn't turn over as a nasty combination of the wind and a swell made the gulf surly on the regatta's second day.
They moved up a spot to second overall with finishes of second and 15th.
Mark Mendelblatt of St. Petersburg finished second in the first race in the Laser class - his Olympic debut - by holding off Brazil's Robert Scheidt at the finish. Scheidt is a gold and silver medalist, and a seven-time world champion. Mendelblatt finished 14th in the second race and was sixth overall.
Blowing through the hills around Athens, Meltemi means "air with no route," and the flow is confused by the time it hits the gulf, south of the city. The wind shifted 65 degrees in 30 minutes in early afternoon on the course closest to central Athens, where the Finns and Ynglings sailed.
It was cruel to American Kevin Hall and New Zealander Dean Barker in the Finn class. It took three attempts in the shifting wind to get in the first of two races.
Barker, the hard-luck skipper in Team New Zealand's America's Cup loss last year, led around the first two marks in the first race before the Meltemi and the seabreeze collided, canceling each other and leaving boats bobbing in the chop. That led to the first abandonment, with Hall in third.
Hall led at the first mark after the first restart, but a severe wind shift forced the race committee to abandon it.
In the second race, eight Finns capsized on the second leg, including Hall. He finished 13th and 17th to drop to 13th overall. Barker moved up to fourth by finishing 7th and 11th.
Poland's Mateusz Kusznierewicz, the '96 gold medalist, took a dunk but quickly recovered. He finished sixth to stay in first.
