European Sailors Win Day Three

It didn’t look or feel like a sailing regatta yesterday as the 93- boat Bacardi Cup fleet went searching for wind. Despite the shifty light breeze, the race was won with a long lead by the Portuguese duo of Alfonso DOMINGOS and crew Bernardo SANTOS.

With half the races completed, the Portuguese pair are now in first place overall at the Bacardi Cup.

Second place went to Hans SPITZAUER and Andreas HANAKAMP (AUT), followed by George SZABO and Mark STAUBE (USA) in third place. Most of the previous day’s leaders were caught in the back of the pack with no wind.

The Austrians were in ninth position after the first and second marks and as crew Hanakamp put it, “we were on a good tack after rounding the second mark and just kept going. We had more luck today.”

It was a big disappointment for six-time Bacardi Cup Champion Mark REYNOLDS who was among the four teams disqualified for an early start after waiting more than an hour to start the race. The Irish team of Maxwell TREACY and Anthony SHANKS were also disqualified for an early start for the second day in a row, ending the regatta effectively for them.

Americans Howie SHIEBLER and crew Will STOUT finished in fourth place and move up to fourth place overall behind Bermudans Peter BROMBY and Lee WHITE, who finished in 13 place and are now third overall.

Canadian Olympian Ross MACDONALD with crew Mike WOLFS finished in fifth place yesterday and move up to second overall. “It was a tough race today with incredibly shifty wind, so shifty that nothing was for certain. We were extremely conservative as anything could get thrown at you and holding to a fifth place through the race was the best part of the day,” said Macdonald.

Marc PICKEL, the skipper of the German team best expressed the day. “It was very shifty wind and basically we didn’t get it right. We went right up the middle and passed a few boats and then got stuck there,” he said. Pickel and Ingo BORKOWSKI placed 61 in racing yesterday.

Full results are available on the event website at the address below.

Overall Top Ten