Malcesine – The fourth day at the 2014 International Star Class World Championship will be remembered as the longer, until now, of this 92nd edition. Two races were in schedule due to the yesterday’s cancellation of the race number 3 in order to catch up with the program.
The first flight initially planned at 8.00 AM was delayed for two hours waiting a safe reduction of Garda’s famous southbound Peler wind. Around 10 o’clock race 3 had a great and clear start in good breeze with 5 italians team among the top 10. GRE 8434 Emilios Papathanasiou/Antonis Tsotras led the fleet with an apparently safe advantage of 48” to ITA 8491 Diego Negri/Sergio Lambertenghi, 52” on GER 8442 Johannes Polgar and Markus Koy and 55” on BRA 8474 Lars Grael with Samuel Goncalves, when the rest of the fleet rounded already after 1 minute and more delay. At the first downwind mark of the day position 1 and 2 were unchanged, but BRA 8210 Torben Grael overlapped GER 8442 Polgar/Koy and became 3rd in the second leg of the race.
Afterwards race 3 was characterized by a thermal wind switch of 180 degrees from northerly to southerly and ended with the second Brazilian Lars Grael & Sam Goncalves wins in a row in the series only 20 minutes prior to the time limit of a Star race in a World Champion.
After a quick lunch break, race 4 start was really aggressive as needed four sequences. It was the beginning of the second half of this championship, so the the pressure was on. Recalls, postponements and black flags saw overall 17 boats out of race 4, including BRA 8474 Lars Grael, that took his second highest penalty that put him potentially off the challenge for the podium.
The final race of the day, with a stable Ora until the end, shows probably one of the highest numbers of matches during this week, with several lead changes. Husband and wife team of SUI 8364 Flavio and Anouk Marazzi from Switzerland lead for most of the race: a really great performance, considering the pressure from GER 8340 Stanjek/Kleen, and USA 8320 Szabo/Natucci. A little more than one leg prior to the end, Szabo with the italian crew Natucci tooks the lead and kept it until the finish line.
2014 International Star Class World Championship include 2 more races. Overall leaderboard shows USA 8465 Augie Diaz and Arni Baltins three points clear of ITA 849 Negri/Lambertenghi, followed by NOR 8317 Melleby/Prada, GER 8442 Polgar/Koy and BRA 8398 Fuchs/Seifert.
Robert Scheidt, the legendary Brazilian sailor, will be our guest tomorrow to comment the races live from the Fraglia Vela Malcesine press office.
Quote of the Day:
George Szabo, winner of Race 4: “It was a long day. We woke up at 6 in the morning and there was too much wind when we got to the yacht club after breakfast. A long postponement on land and then one very long race, the first race, it went close to the time limit so yeah, it’s a good feeling to have a win in the second race.”
To see the standings click here.
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