Star Class Honoring the Past, Leading the Future
Another great day of sailing on Biscayne Bay for races 3 and 4 of the 2018 Star Western Hemisphere in Miami, hosted and organized by Biscayne Bay Yacht Club. Partially cloudy with winds ranging from 10 to 12 knots from east, a little lighter than yesterday and more challenging because of shiftier condition.
Race 3 started a few minutes after 11am with a couple of boats over the line with a wind direction of 105° for a 1.5 miles long upwind beat. The first to the weather mark were John Dane III / Tim Ray (USA) who were also leading at the gate, but then Luca Modena (ITA) / Marcello Sansone (BRA) overtook them on the second beat and were able to maintain the whole fleet but one boat behind them until the end. That boat was the one skippered by Paul Cayard (USA) with crew Arthur Lopes (BRA) who got in the race nicely on the last two legs to get the win. The third team to cross the finish line was Lars Grael / Samuel F M Gonçalves (BRA), last night overall leaders remain in the top spot today after 3 races.
After a bit of adjustment of the racecourse with the wind shifting a little to the left to 90° and then back to the right at 110°, race number 4 started. Good pace was shown by the Danish sailors Jørgen Schönherr / Jan Eli Gravad on the upwind leg, arriving first at the mark rounding followed by Cayard / Lopes and Grael / Goncalves. From then on it was all about Lars staying in the lead until the end and Cayard losing a couple of spots to the Danish and American Peter Vessella / Phil Trinter, only to regain them back on the last downwind leg to the finish just behind former ISCYRA President Grael and ahead of the Danes Schönherr / Gravad.
In the overall ranking, before the discard, Lars Grael and Samuel Goncalves are leading with a 8 points margin over the second Paul Cayard and Arthur ‘Tutu’ Lopes and 12 points over the third place Jorge Zarif and Guilherme De Almeida (BRA) who were a little less consistent than yesterday with a 5, 10 in today's races.
Tomorrow’s first start is scheduled for 11, with a forecasted southeast breeze around 11-15 knots. Sunday still looks tricky with with winds ranging from 18 to 23 knots from south.
