Joe Woods hangs on to the lead

Red ahead of Peter Rogers' Highlife by a point at the Audi Melges 32 Europeans

Two more races were in store on the second day of the 2010 Audi Melges 32 European Championship, confirming that undoubtedly Joe Woods on Red and Peter Rogers on Highlife are more determined to succeed than any other.

The fleet initially waited for the breeze to fill in as it has proven more difficult to read than ever before. Right away, Dutch entry Kees Kaan on ROARK, last overall, rounded the weather mark in race one in first place, while overall leader Woods was last. Kaan slowly but surely lost control of the lead to John Kilroy's American team on Samba Pa Ti where Stu Bannatyne on tactics. Kilroy won the the race ahead of Italian rivals Lanfranco Cirillo on Fantastica and Luca Lalli on B.LinSailing.com. Rogers suffered an eighth place finish while Woods accepted 13th.

There were more signs of tension and nervousness for the start of race two. After the third attempt at a start, Woods, with Paul Goodison on tactics and Edoardo Pavesio on Fra Martina with Charles Fracassoli on tactics, were among those that proved to have enough boat speed to build a substantial lead over the duration of the race. However the wind dropped leaving Ferdinando Battistella’s Cuervo Y Sobrinos in third. For Cirillo, he finished ninth while Lalli’s lackluster results were their worst yet. Rogers was satisfied with a nice seventh - also his worst result thus far.

The overall top five positions remain unchanged but the standings have closed the gap.

Top ten results (After 5 races)

1.) Joe Woods/Paul Goodison, Red; 1-6-1-13-1= 22
2.) Peter Rogers/Ruaridh Scott, Highlife; 2-1-5-5-7 = 23
3.) Lanfranco Cirillo/Michele Paoletti, Fantastica; 4-2-6-2-9 = 23
4.) Luca Lalli/Lorenzo Bressani, BLinSailing.com; 3-5-3-3-10 = 24
5.) John Kilroy/Stu Bannatyne, Samba Pa Ti; 8-9-4-1-5 = 27
6.) Jean-Francois Cruette/Christian Ponthieu, Teasing Machine; 7-4-9-12-6 = 41
7.) Filippo Pacinotti/Freddy Loof, Brontolo; 13-7-2-16-12 = 49
8.) Andrea Cecchetti/Vasco Vascotto, Bagua; 10-11-7-6-16 = 50
9.) Wolfgang Stolz/Sten Mohr, Opus One; 9-12-8-7-11 = 50
10.) Mauro Mocchegiani/Matteo Ivaldi, Rush Diletta; 13-14-13-8-4 = 52