Portugal takes the lead

As more heroes tumble after day three of the Star's Bacardi Cup

A win and two seventh positions have given Portugese Star sailors Afonso Domingos and Bernardo Santos a six point lead at the end of day three of the Bacardi Cup in Miami. Following Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell's BFD on day one and Paul Cayard and Phil Trinter's OCS yesterday some of the top talent in the class have been taking a fall and today this fate befell yesterday's overall leader Freddie Loof and Anders Ekstrom who today scored a DNF.

With the 93-boat Bacardi Cup fleet searching for wind on Biscayne Bay in the
shifty light breeze, Portuguese were able to open out a large lead as most of yesterday’s leaders were caught in the back of the pack with no wind. Second place went to Austrians Hans Spitzauer and crew Andreas Hanakamp, followed by Americans George Szabo and crew Mark Staube in third place.

The Austrians were in ninth position after the first and second marks and as crew Hanakamp put it, “we were on a good tack after rounding the second mark and just kept going. We had more luck today.”

Aside from Loof and Ekstrom Bacardi Cup Champion Mark Reynolds who was among the four teams disqualified for an early start after waiting more than an hour to start the race. Irish favourites Maxwell Treacy and crew Anthony Shanks were also disqualified for an early start for the second day in a row, thus ending the race for them.

Highly rated by Iain Percy Americans Howie Shiebler and crew Will Stout finished in fourth place and move up to fourth place overall behind Bermudans Peter Bromby and crew Lee White who finished in 13th place and are now third overall. Shiebler and Stout are now top Americans, significant with US slot in this class still undecided.

Canadian Olympian Ross Macdonald and crew Mike Wolfs finished in fifth place today and move up to second overall. “It was a tough race today with incredibly shifty wind, so shifty that nothing was for certain. We were extremely conservative as anything could get thrown at you and holding to a fifth place through the race was the best part of the day,” said Macdonald.

Marc Pickel the skipper of the German team best expressed the day. “It was very shifty wind and basically we didn’t get it right. We went right up the middle and passed a few boats and then got stuck there,” he said. Pickel and crew Ingo Borkowski placed 61st today.

Pos	Crew	Nat	R1	R2	R3	Tot
1	Afonso Domingos & Bernardo Santos	POR	7	7	1	15
2	Ross Macdonald & Mike Wolfs	CAN	3	13	5	21
3	Peter Bromby & Lee White	BER	18	1	13	32
4	Howie Shiebler & Will Stout	USA	26	5	4	35
5	Flavio Marazzi & Enrico De Maria	SUI	9	4	24	37
6	Colin Beashel & David Giles	AUS	15	10	16	41
7	Marko Dahlberg & Ville Kurki	FIN	32	6	19	57
8	Andy Lovell & Magnus Liljedahl	USA	10	42	8	60
9	Hans Spitzauer & Andreas Hanakamp	AUT	8	51	2	61
10	John Dane III & Henry Sprague	USA	6	27	31	64
11	Jali Makila & Erkki Heinonen	FIN	29	17	18	64
12	Vince Brun & Mike Dorgan	USA	17	2	46	65
13	Michael Koch & Markus Koy	GER	11	19	35	65
14	Andy Macdonald & Austin Sperry	USA	19	20	28	67
15	Marc Pickel & Ingo Borkowski	GER	2	11	61	74
16	Xavier Rohart & Pascal Rambeau	FRA	21	14	41	76
17	John Maccausland & Brad Nichol	CAN	14	37	30	81
18	Bill Allen & Brad Lichter	USA	55	21	9	85
19	Riccardo Simoneschi & Marco Marenco	ITA	44	30	12	86
20	Steven Kelly & William Holowesko	BAH	27	57	10	94
21	Arthur Anosov & Dave Caesar	UKR	40	29	25	94
22	Augie Diaz & Hal Haenel	USA	25	56	17	98
23	Fredrik Loof & Anders Ekstrom	SWE	4	3	94\DNF	101
24	Rick Merriman & Bill Bennett	USA	5	47	52	104
25	Karl Anderson & Ezra Culver	USA	28	16	63	107
26	Alexander Hagen & Wolfram Jochen	GER	13	46	50	109
27	Michael Hicks & Patrick Hicks	GBR	20	69	20	109
28	Klaus Meyer & Lutz Bogun	GER	60	26	23	109
29	Nicklas Holm & Claus Olesen	DEN	23	18	69	110
30	George Szabo & Mark Staube	USA	94\DNF	15	3	112
31	Mark Reynolds & Steve Erickson	USA	12	9	94\OCS	115
32	Peter Vessella & Brian Fatih	USA	24	45	48	117
33	Tony Herrmann & Todd Raynor	USA	46	35	36	117
34	Eric Doyle & Brian Sharp	USA	22	23	73	118
35	Todd Gay & Jon Klenk	USA	47	31	43	121
36	Joe Zambella & Jeremy Davidson	USA	31	25	66	122
37	Aaron Serinis & John Avis	USA	35	64	27	126
38	Pat Londrigan & Christian Finnsgard	USA	94\BFD	22	11	127
39	Mark Neeleman & Peter van Niekerk	NED	94\BFD	12	22	128
40	Peter Wright & Dan Wright	USA	94\BFD	24	14	132
41	Gary Mac Donald & Bill Batton	USA	33	40	60	133
42	Argyle Campbell & Dmitry Yakovenk	USA	45	63	26	134
43	Nelson Stephenson & Carsten Witt	USA	61	41	34	136
44	Peter Wyss & Urs Joss	SUI	94\BFD	44	6	144
45	Rob Emmet & Mike Voeltner	USA	51	62	32	145
46	Stefan Lehnert & Peter Menning	GER	37	59	49	145
47	Iain Percy & Steve Mitchell	GBR	94\BFD	8	44	146
48	Brian Cramer & Eric Monroe	CAN	36	58	53.5\TIE	148
49	Daniel Wyss & Beat Stegmeier	SUI	50	61	38	149
50	Paul Cayard & Phil Trinter	USA	1	94\OCS	55	150