Star Western Hemisphere Championship 2015

John Payne Photo

Coconut Grove

Two races were held again today on Biscayne Bay, in 8-11 knots from the south.  The wind was quite shifty again which gave everyone plenty of opportunity to move up…….. or down.

In the first race Brian and I crossed the starting line too early.  This meant we had to go back and restart about 1 minute after the others.  We had made up some ground, and then our starboard shroud let go.  Somehow the bolt that held it on had come unthreaded. We were very lucky not to lose the mast right then and there. We were able to find a spare pin to in the boat and get the shroud back on. In the end we finished 21st.   John MacCausland and Bruno Prada had bad luck in that they did not realize that they were over the start early and did not go back so they were scored as didi not start….last.

Brian Led Better and Josh Revkin sailed an excellent race to that the win followed by Marcelo Fuchs and Donald Seifert.  Andy MacDonnald and Brad Nichol had a good race to round out the top three.  I don’t know how they all got to those positions cuz I couldn’t see, but those are the results.

In the second race, we had a good start very close to Lars Grael.  We were able to play the first two shifts slightly better and were first to the first mark and led the entire way to the finish. It was a great race up in front with four boats fighting the whole way.  John MacCausland and  Bruno Prada eventually ended up 4th, Lars Grael and Samuel Conclaves ended up third and Brian Ledbetter and Josh Revkin finished second.

So I guess Brian and I are sailing constantly in that we are inconsistent all the time. Also, we are the only team to have won two races. Hopefully, tomorrow morning we can have a better first race.

Once the 5th race is in the books, all teams will be allowed to drop their worst score.  This will change the positions a bit.  If you go the the site below, you can see how tight things are at the top with the discard.  The first 4 boats are within two points.  Brian and I will be about 14 points off the lead with a discard.  We have made it tough on ourselves but not impossible.

For complete results go to: http://www.yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=1230

Forest for tomorrow has greatly improved.  Early this week, Saturday looked like a drift off but now it should be 10-14 knots from the southeast.

Paul