News

14

April 2018

Day 3 of the 2018 ISCYRA Western Hemisphere in Miami

The Star Western Hemisphere 2018 keeps getting better!!

A beautiful sunny day with winds blowing at 15 knots from east-southeast welcomed the 37 teams at Biscayne Bay Yacht Club on Saturday morning.

 By 10am they were all on the water, for an ‘on time’ start of race 5 at 11 o’clock. Augie Diaz / Bruno Prada (USA/BRA) had a good upwind leg and were first to round the mark, followed by the very consistent Lars Grael / Samuel Goncalves (BRA). At the gate the sailors had a Charlie flag because the wind had shifted to the right at 110°. The first three boats at the gate were still Diaz, Grael and Tomas Hornos / Phil Toth (USA). These teams would be the leaders of race 5 until the end, where the American duo would take the final win over Diaz /Prada in second place, with the Danes, Jørgen Schönherr / Jan Eli Gravad slipping in in third position and Grael / Goncalves finishing fourth - but still leading the overall ranking.

 Before the start of race 6, the wind went back to east-south east and was lighter at about 8-10 knots. Five boats were over early and had to come back, among them was golden star Lars Grael / Samuel Goncalves. They would recover from the bad start to finish 10th. Tomas Hornos / Phil Toth were in great shape and rounded the windward mark in first place followed by Nicolaus Pro / Chad Easley (USA) and John Dane III / Tim Ray (USA). Paul Cayard / Arthur ‘Tutu’ Lopes had very good speed on the downwind leg and they were third at the gate, but did even better on the second upwind to gain the lead at the windward mark to stay on top until the finish. Tomas Hornos / Phil Toth followed in second and Jack Jennings / Frithjof Kleen (USA/GER) in third.

Lars Grael / Samuel Goncalves are still leading the 2018 ISCYRA Western Hemisphere after 6 races, Paul Cayard /Arthur Lopes keep the second position cutting down margin from the leader to only 5 points, and, at a safe 10 points distance from Augie Diaz / Bruno Prada who are third after a very good day on the water.

The weather conditions for tomorrow might not be as bad as they were forecasted at the beginning of the week. Winds from the south at over 20 knots expected, and they might affect the schedule of the last day of racing of the 2018 Western Hemisphere Championship.

Rachele Vitello

SSL Press Officer since 2015