Boehm and Roos ahead

SAP 505 Worlds get underway in Barbados

There are two casinos within walking distance of the Barbados Yacht Club, and if anybody ought to hit the casinos tonight it's German skipper Stefan Boehm, winner of the opening two races of the SAP 5O5 World Championship and a strategic gambler in both.

Racing continues through Friday in the sparkling Caribbean off Bridgetown, Barbados, where German sailors hold the top three spots on the leaderboard. In sailor-talk, Boehm and crewman Gerald Roos started hard-left in race one and led at every mark. They started hard-right in race two and led at every mark except one.

In the ever-changing world of wind and water, there is always a reason to favour one side of the race course or the other. At that second-race start, Boehm and Roos were looking at another left-favoured situation, but...the wind had only recently shifted direction to make the left side a quicker course to the first mark.

"We believed it had to come back to the right," explained Boehm. "We bet on the right. It was kind of risky."

And for the first few minutes it looked like a bad bet. If the wind had remained stable from that point on, Boehm and Roos would have been lucky to finish in the middle of the fleet. But they got the wind shift they had bet on. Suddenly a transformed playing field favoured the right-hand side. Boehm and Roos led the fleet around the weather mark, and to go back to sailor-speak, they were "launched."

Joining Boehm and Roos after the races in the SAP sailors' lounge were Class Lehmann and Leon Oehme, second in the standings with finishes of second and fourth, and past world champion Wolfgang Hunger with crewman Holger Jess, third on finishes of third and sixth.

Of the 76 boats entered, seven did not compete, six of which are boats stuck in a container coming from the US West Coast and not yet picked up from the dock in Trinidad. That's an unfortunate story all around, especially for the Barbados team of Jason Tindale and Robert Povey, who have never sailed a 5O5, but thought they would get the chance through the generosity of a 5O5 believer who sincerely tried to provide a boat for them to sail.

In a change to the sailing instructions, the race committee announced late today that the racing calendar for Sunday has been expanded from one to two races, starting at noon local time.

But that dice cup on the table, Stefan. Can we have just a peek inside?

Results (top 50):