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14 September 2005, 12:11 pm

SKELLY Holds On To The Lead

Basilica J/24 World Championship 2005

Weymouth, Great Britain

After a one hour delay on shore, the 55 boat J/24 fleet in Great Britain sailing the 2005 Basilica J/24 World Championship, set out for Weymouth Bay to pound out three races yesterday. Overnight leader Max SKELLY (USA) had a good day with consistent finishes seeing him open out a twelve point gap at the top of the leaderboard.

The fleet was sent out only to be further delayed by another hour wait on the wind to settle in at 230 degrees with five to eight knots of pressure. In race two of the Championship, the first race sailed yesterday, there was a clean start with only individual recalls on the committee boat end (I-flag start). The middle of the course was favoured by the leaders. Fiamma Gialla, driven by Luigi RAVIOLA (ITA), led the entire race, pulling away from the rest of the fleet over the length of the course. Anthony KOTOUN (ISV), sailing Jigalo finished second, with Peter BREAM (USA) on Team Tarheel in third. SKELLY on Murder Picture finished fourth.

The day's second race, the first attempt to start was a general recall, resulting in a clear black flag start in the second attempt. The wind increased to eight to ten knots going right to 240 degrees. Botta Dritta, helmed by Pasquale Mario DI FRAIA (ITA) finished first. Buschetta, helmed by Mauricio SANTA CRUZ (BRA), took second with Manfred KONIG (GRE) sailing Vitesse third.

For the final race of the day the Race Officer went straight to a black flag start given the late start time of 1700 hours local time. KOTOUN scored his first bullet ahead of BREAM in second and SKELLY finishing third. At the final leeward mark, the Irish entry, Carrabeg Two, having rounded the leeward gate in fifth place and sailing upwind on starboard, was t-boned by L'Allegro Sommelier driven by Carlo MAREMMANI (ITA), resulting in serious damage just forward of the mast on Carrabeg. The Irish boat was towed to the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Centre for repair.

13 protests were lodged, pending arbitration.

Top Ten After Four Races

Pos	Nation	Boat	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	Pts
1	USA	Murder Picture	Max SKELLY	1	4	4	3	12
2	ISV	Jigalo	Anthony KOTOUN	14	2	7	1	24
3	BRA	Bruschetta	Mauricio SANTA CRUZ	5	10	2	7	24
4	JPN	Gekko	Tomomi HATAKEYAMA	2	12	6	5	25
5	USA	Team Tarheel	Peter BREAM	3	3	25	2	33
6	ITA	Fiamma Gialla	Luigi RAVIOLI	21	1	8	6	36
7	GBR	Roger Rabbit	Gavin WATSON	8	8	9	14	39
8	IRL	Carrabeg Two	Stefan HYDE	4	18	21	5 RDG	48
9	GER	Rotoman	Hauke KRÜSS	9	5	19	21	54
10	ARG	Luca Vive	Alejo RIGONI	23	9	13	9	54