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The Official
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At the end of Sunday's racing, Caixa Galicia led, with a one point advantage over Atalanti XV owned by ISAF Vice-President, George ANDREADIS (GRE), and ahead of the Pisco Sour team by two points. Behind the tight leader group, in fourth place was the Bribon-Movistar, owned by Jose CUSI, designed by Farr, and in fifth, Russell COUTTS' (NZL) team, Lexus, followed by the Orlanda-Olympus in sixth, and USA's Bambakou closing the classifications.
At 1245 hours local time with ideal sailing conditions and with a west-northeasterly wind, of up to 14 knots, the starting signal was given.
The start of the first race, as in the rest of the regatta, the Chilean Pisco Sour, skippered by VASCOTTO took the lead in a leg with a close rivalry from beginning to end. Atalanti and Caixa Galicia were behind, followed by Orlando Olympus, in a close battle resulting in a third place position for Caixa Galicia. The leaders were closely followed by COUTTS on Lexus, then by Bribon-Movistar.
At the tail of the race was Bambakou, who were relegated to the last position due to a tactical error and found themselves unable to make up the metres lost by getting tied up with a buoy when they were fighting for third position.
The second race was a true dance of positions in each marker, due to a drop in wind-speed. After a fairly even start the Bribon-Movistar sailed an excellent upwind stretch, and were only a boat's length behind Lexus, Caixa Galicia and Pisco Sour. However Bribon-Movistar decided to jibe a few metres, and allowed Lexus to squeeze through, who passed the leeward marker in first position, with Caixa behind.
COUTTS' team lead was short lived, as a decision to go to the left of the regatta course did not turn out as planned. So Lexus went from being in first position to being in the last, passing the windward marker almost three minutes after Caixa Galicia who maintained a leading position until the end of the race. Bribon-Movistar crossed the line little more than a minute after the Caixa Galicia team, followed by Atalanti and Lexus who managed to miraculously recover, with Pisco Sour, Bamabkou and Orlanda behind.
Vicente TIRADO, owner Caixa Galicia commented, 'It's been a very competitive day's racing, and I am very happy for myself and the team. We sailed two good races, and everything has turned out perfectly. In the first race we were fighting for a leading position , although an incident with Bambakou meant we lost three lengths. We also lost a length in the last downwind stretch, but we can comfort ourselves in the fact that we sailed a fabulous second race, and are honoured to be the first crew to head the classifications in the 'Premiere' of the Breitling MEDCUP.'