Star World Championship
Coconut Grove
Race 2 of the 2016 Star World Championship was held today on Biscayne Bay. At start time, 11:30, the wind was in at 16 knots from 085 and stayed pretty much the same all race. Having said that, there were 15 degree oscillations and 4 knot changes in windspeed. It was still a very shifty race course with the wind coming over Key Biscayne once again. The sea was very choppy, especially on starboard tack and this made it difficult to keep the boat going fast upwind.
The fleet got away cleanly on the first start today. The left side of the line was favored by 5 degrees and over the length of 2400′, that makes a difference. Also, the first shift came from the left. 2014 World Champions Robert Stanjeck and Frithjof Kleen got off the line well, hit the first shift and amassed a dominant lead within the first 10 minutes of the race. Not far behind was Torben Grael and his crew Guilherme de Almeida. These two never changed positions for the rest of the race. This result keeps them in the game for the over all after being disqualified like Brian and I yesterday. Being out in front is always good but especially so when the wind is shifty as you can always tack on the shifts as there is no traffic to deal with.
Brian and I were a bit conservative off the line and too far to the right. three quarters of the way up the first leg, we were in tough with the group around 7th place. But I got off to the right too far and the wind went left at the very end of the leg. So we rounded that first mark about 20th. I did not sail very smart today. We were out of phase most of the time. On the last leg we did sail well and made up a huge out of distance but only passed about 4 boats to finish 14th. I am not overly pleased with this result. Basically with these first two races it will be very difficult for us to be in the hunt for the championship. There will be one discard after five races are completed so that will help all of us who were “black flagged” yesterday.
Augie Diaz, with Bruno Prada crewing, sailed fast to move from 7th to 4th as the race went on. They now lead the Championship with 7 points. Luke Lawrence and Ian Coleman also posted another great score with a 6th and they are now in second place. George Szabo and Steve Mitchell, yesterdays winners were 9th today and are in 3rd overall. Diego Negri is tied with Szabo.
The weather is forecast to change pretty dramatically with 10 knots of wind on tap for tomorrow. This will be interesting to see the fleet in a different conditions.
For complete results go to www.yachtscoriing.com
Paul
