Another great day of sailing on Biscayne Bay for race 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 becuase shiftier.
Race 3 started a few minutes after 11am with a couple of boats over the line with wind direction of 105° for a 1.5 miles long upwind. The firsts at 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 bit and were able to maintain all the 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. Third team crossing was Lars Grael / Samuel Goncalves (BRA), last night overall leaders were still on the top spot today after 3 races.
After a bit of adjustment with the wind gone a little to the left to 90° and then back to the right at 110°, race number 4 started. Good pace shown by the Danish Jørgen Schönherr / Jan Eli Gravad on the upwind, they were first at the mark rounding followed by Cayard / Lopes and Grael / Goncalves. From then on it was all about Lars staying on the lead until the end and Cayard losing a couple of spots to the Danish and American Peter Vessella / Phil Trinter, to regain them back on the last downind leg to finish just behind former ISCYRA President and ahead of the Danish 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 over the third ones Jorge Zarif and Guilherme De Almeida (BRA) who were a little less performing than yesterday with a 5, 10.
Tomorrow’s first start is scheduled by 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.
SSL Press Officer since 2015