Despite tricky conditions and some rain showers, six races took place on day two of the Alps Challenge Traunsee for the foiling GC32 catamarans.

Friday’s racing on Lake Traunsee saw Team ENGIE open proceedings with a win, but the French team’s joy was short-lived, missing race two due to problems with their gennaker.

From race two on, NORAUTO Racing took command once again, winning all five of the day’s remaining races.

As leader after two days of fleet racing, Minoprio and his NORAUTO Racing crew were then allowed to pick their opponent for the match racing which begins tomorrow. In the semis, they chose to meet PROFS I Youth America’s Cup – Team Austria, which came fourth overall in the fleet racing.

The Austrians really improved, scoring two second places and one third on day two but the young team was unable to elevate itself from the bottom spot on the leaderboard.

“The conditions were in our favour,” said skipper Max Trippolt. “We were concentrating hard right from the outset and in the first race we had a good start, which we translated into a second. I’m looking forward to the races against NORAUTO Racing. Adam has incredible speed and he doesn’t make mistakes. He’s a great sailor.”

The second semi-final will be between the evenly matched Sebastien Rogues’ Team ENGIE and Flavio Marazzi’s ARMIN STROM Sailing Team.

“Even if we had some technical problems, I’m happy about our day,” reported Rogues. “Tomorrow, I expect some great races against Flavio. He knows the GC32 very well. It will be a challenge, but we love difficult situations. We’ll be well prepared.”

The match races will be best of seven. The first team with four wins goes through to the finals on Sunday, where prize money of €15,000 awaits the winner from the €30,000 prize purse.

Results after 11 races: 

1 NORAUTO Racing Team (FRA) – Adam Minoprio – 14
2 Team ENGIE (FRA) ‘- Sebastien Rogues – 28
3 ARMIN STROM Sailing (SUI) – Flavio Marazzi – 29
4 PROFS I Youth America’s Cup–Team Austria – Max Trippolt – 39

Full results here