Racing resumes

Into the quarter finals of the Vitoria Brasil Sailing Cup match racing

An early morning start and moderating breeze allowed for the completion of a full eleven flights of racing today in the Vitoria Brasil Sailing Cup, the 14th stage on the 2006-7 World Match Racing Tour. From nearly dawn to dusk race managers from the Federacao Capixaba de Latismo Boatzone kept up continuous match race action through the remainder of the Round Robins of Stage 1 and the Repechage of Stage 2 to determine the eight teams qualifying for the Quarter Finals of Stage 3 of the competition. And by late afternoon two flights of the Quarter Finals were also completed before darkness set in over the course area in the Baia de Vitoria. The aggressive schedule was pursued to make up for the time lost due to the heavy winds of the first two days of the event.

Magnus Holmberg (SWE) of Victory Challenge and Paolo Cian (ITA) of Team Shosholosa were winners of their respective groups in Stage 1, and were thereby paired against Alvaro Marinho (POR) and Torvar Mirsky (AUS), the top two finishers from the Stage 2 Repechage, for the Quarter Finals. Second and third place finishers from Stage 1 were also paired off against each other, and include Philippe Presti (FRA) of Luna Rossa against Bjorn Hansen (SWE) of Team Apport.net and Ian Williams (GBR) of Team Pindar against Mathieu Richard (FRA) of the Saba Racing Team.

Besides vying for the top share of the US$150,000 purse offered in this event, the first-to-three point series in this last pairing has particular significance, as Williams and Richard are the current front runners in the World Tour standings, separated by only seven points. The winner here in Brasil will take a 20 point lead going into the final stage at the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia in two weeks time.

“These matches will be very important for us,” said Richard, “because we want to be positioned well going into the World Championship.”

Williams seemed a little less concerned about the effect of this round’s outcome on the overall standings, saying: “Yes, there would be a 20 point advantage, but since the Worlds counts double in points, that would only be a two-place difference in the results. So, really anything can happen, we just have to keep pushing to win.”

These two along with the Cian and Mirsky won’t compete until tomorrow’s completion of the series between Hansen and Presti, which lies now 2-1 in Presti’s favor. In their third match today it looked as though Presti might have taken the series in a 3-0 sweep when Hansen lost a narrow lead in the first beat when he failed to protect the favored right side.

“The waves were so big - about 2 metres - and skewed to the left, so that upwind port tack was much faster than starboard tack, making it really hard to protect the right,” Hansen explained. But this same bias that coast Hansen the lead also worked to his favour on the second beat, allowing him to take the right this time by ducking Presti’s stern on port tack and leaving the Luna Rossa team unable to cover. The Swedes then took control at the top mark and went on to win the match, keeping their chances alive to reach the Semi-Finals.

One team that will be advancing to the Semi-Finals is the other Swedish-based crew in the event, Magnus Holmberg of Victory Challenge, who defeated their Portugal-based rival Alvaro Marinho 3-0. Marinho’s team suffered a setback in the first match when their mainsheet trimmer Diogo Barros slipped and fell overboard during the takedown at the leeward mark, forcing Marinho to turn back upwind to retrieve Barros and retire from the match. Barros, slightly injured in the mishap, was removed to seek medical attention, and Marinho was able to continue the series with a replacement crew brought from ashore.

Stage 3 of the Quarter Finals will continue tomorrow here in Vitoria, as will the start of the Stage 4 Semi-Finals.