Aggressive race start leads to tight regatta finish at the Star Worlds

Cracking conditions on day 5 sets up a tense final day decider at the Star Worlds in Miami, USA.

Despite the gorgeous conditions, aggression on the start line meant the fifth race of the Championships took three attempts for the 72 teams to get underway.

With the majority of the boats over early, the Race Officer ordered a general recall. The Race Committee squared the starting line, pushing the pin forward for the next start and shortly after the second starting sequence began, the fleet was once again over.
 
Third time lucky, now only three teams were over; Lars Ahlstrom & Lars Edwall, Bert Collins & Jacob Doyle and James Babel & Scott Benson. Throughout the rest of the race, the Race Committee continued to monitor the unstable wind and made every necessary adjustment to ensure the sailors had a fair race.
 
The race was intense and the leaders changed at every mark. It was a stressful one for those watching as the sailors fought in boat-to-boat combat for the lead. At the first mark, Peter Vesella took the lead with a tight fleet rounding. Paul Cayard came from the left side of the course and tacked behind Peter consolidating the second place. The downwind was a speed battle where Luke Lawrence took a big advantage rounding the second mark in first position.

He was ahead of the fleet till the last downwind where Diego Negri took the lead and made a solid race to the finish line.
 
With five of six scheduled races completed and with the worst score discarded, there are still three teams on the bubble hoping to sail well enough to keep their hopes alive for the gold.
 
Results after 5 races:
 
1-Diego Negri / Sergio Lambertenghi
2-Augie Diaz / Bruno Prada
3-Brian Ledbetter / Joshua Revkin
4-Peter Vessella / Phil Trinter
5-Lars Schmidt Grael / Samuel Goncalves
6-Torben Schmidt Grael / Guilherme de Almeida
7-Andrew Macdonald / Brad Nichol
8-Luke Lawrence / Ian Coleman
9-George Szabo / Steve Mitchell
10-Paul Cayard / Brian Fatih