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FEATURED REGATTAS: May 5, 2008

Biscayne Bay Kicks up and the French Win the Race
By Lynn Fitzpatrick

Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau (FRA) won the day with a clean start at the boat and by going right up the second beat. John MacCausland and Kevin Murphy, with an average of seven points and an eighth in today's race, the third race of the 2008 Star World Championships, now lead the six race regatta as we go into a lay day.

The 104-boat fleet and its floating entourage drifted on a glassy Biscayne Bay for a little over an hour in singing heat. It was so hot that the Star sailors stripped off their neoprene and tried to hide below decks and in the shade of their sails. The sea breeze started to fill and the sailors hoisted their sails and slowly sailed downwind toward Coco Plum.

After yesterday's harsh punishment for being over early, more boats hung back at the start. For the first time in the regatta, an individual recall flag went up. A couple of boats ducked back below the line, but the flag remained standing. Those who had clear air and played the middle and the right rounded in the top of the fleet, while those who fought valiantly for the pin at the start and went left struggled to weave their way through the fleet as it bore away toward a leeward mark that had been shifted right to 330 degrees. Kostya Datsenko and Olexandr Yevseyenko (UKR) were punched out so far ahead of everybody coming in from the right that it looked as if they must have been OCSed, but they weren't and they rounded the first weather mark in the lead with Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA) and Kunio Suzuki and Daichi Wada (JPN) in pursuit.

By going low on the run, Scheidt/Prada scooped the lead and were the first to round the right gate. The Ukrainians were second and Hamish Pepper and Carl Willams (NZL) came out of the gate right on their hip. Iain Murray and Andrew Palfrey (AUS) and the Japanese paraded behind them. The key to the second beat was to go right as the wind built and continued to clock toward the south. By the time the leaders reached the second weather mark, the wind was blowing 12.5 - 14 knots and everyone was wishing that they had set up for heavier winds.

Positions changed considerably during the run with the breeze on and waves to surf. Four Olympians pulled into the top positions. Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau (FRA), Pepper/Williams, Iain Murray and Andrew Palfrey (AUS) and Scheidt/Prada headed out toward the right hand side of the course for a final leg with the breeze on and the waves kicking up. The French won the race. Scheidt/Prada were second and Pepper/Williams were third. Xavier Rohart looked down at his blistering hands following the race and said, "Whew, they hurt. I wish that I had put my gloves on and set up for heavy air."

Kunio Suzuki and Diachi Wada (JPN), with their tenth place finish today are the top contenders for the final four country berths at the Olympics in Qingdao. Others in good stead going into the second half of the regatta are Hans Spitzhauer and Christian Nehammer (AUT), Peter O'Leary and Stephen Milne (IRL) and Flavio Marazzi and Enrico deMaria (SUI).

MacCausland/Murphy are winning the regatta on a tie breaker with Murray/Palfrey. Both Iain Murray and Pascal Rambeau have something more to celebrate than their race results, tomorrow is the Australian skipper's and the French crew's birthday. Mateusz Kusnierewicz and Dominik Zycki (POL) the winners of the first two races had a mid-fleet finish and slipped to ninth in the standings, but like many they've had at least one race that they'd really like to discard.