Qualcomm 2013 Star World Championship: Ledbetter and Morton win Race 2 by an impressive 1 minute and 9 seconds

San Diego (CA), September 2, 2013 - Race two of the Qualcomm 2013 Star World Championship got underway after a postponement due to fog. Winds were around 10 knots at 295 degrees. The Race Committee set a Course 3 (five legs) at 2.1 miles a leg again today.  The overall results after two races show that only 4 of the 66 teams have finishes in the top 10 in both races. Local Gold Star Winner Vince Brun and Brian Terhaar rounded each mark solidly in the top of the fleet in today’s race and now lead the Qualcomm 2013 Star World Championship series.

 

Today’s race winners Brian Ledbetter and Greg Morton had a clear air start at the starboard end of the line with full boat speed at the gun. Ledbetter and Jean-Pascal Chatagny with Patrick Ducommun paced each other to work out into the front of the fleet with Hubert Merkelbach with Gerrit Bartel from Germany and Augie Diaz with Arnis Baltins from Florida keeping the pressure on.

Ledbetter and Morton led at every mark putting more and more precious seconds between them and the fleet. Brian Ledbetter and Greg Morton went on to win race two by an impressive 1 minute 9 seconds.

Following today’s race results, 6 of the top 10 teams are local San Diego Star Sailors, including the father and son team of Mike and Matt Dorgan. This event is 13 year old Matt’s first Star World Championship and he and his father are currently tied for 7th place.

A recap of today from USA 8203 Brian Ledbetter, winner of Race 2:

“It was a nice race today. The day started foggy and so the Race Committee waited because we couldn’t see the weather mark. But when we finally got started, it was nice hiking breeze, we got off the line clear, and went to the right. And that actually worked out really well. There were 3 boats really close, but we got around the weather mark ahead of them, and that was pretty crucial because after that there weren’t too many passing lanes during the race. So at that point we had to stay ahead, a little bit of easy covering, not too difficult, and tried to extend on the run. The trickiest part of the race was after we rounded the 1st mark first and the fog closed in.  We couldn’t see the leeward mark, so we didn’t know where we were headed. But we held them off there, and we stayed ahead on the way to the finish.

Our plan is to be consistent. It’s a tough fleet, 60 plus boats, and if you can keep throwing single digits up on the board, you’ll be close to the action. Our goal is top 10 here, and we’re in that spot now so it feels pretty good.”
Provisional results after 2 races:

1) V. Brun-B. Terhaar, USA, 9 pts.
2) B. Ledbetter-G. Morton, USA, 10 pts.
3) J. MacCausland-P. Trinter, USA, 13 pts.
4) G. Szabo-C. Moss, USA, 13 pts.
5) M. Reynolds-H. Haenel, USA, 15 pts.
6) A. Diaz-A. Baltins, USA, 16 pts.
7) J.P. Chatagny-P. Ducommun, SUI, 20 pts.
8) M. Dorgan-M. Dorgan, USA, 20 pts.
9) L. Grael-S.F. Goncalves, BRA, 21 pts.
10) A. Campbell-J. von Schwarz, USA, 22 pts.