Nassau (Bahamas), 04 December 2013 - Sunshine,
12-15 knots of perfect breeze in Nassau Bahamas where 4 regattas were
held, one after the other, on the first day of the Star Sailors League
Finals. Italy's
Diego Negri with Sergio Lambertenghi were the undisputed leaders of the
first two races, while Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada claimed a great
win in race three. Switzerland's Marazzi brothers tasted the success in
the day's nail-biting, fourth race that was marked by a 5-boat photo
finish.
In the
opening regatta Scheidt and Prada went into a great start battle with
Paul Cayard and Austin Sperry but the skipper from Gruppo Sportivo
Fiamme Gialle got a clear lead just some minutes later. At the first
top mark there were not many surprises in the rounding order: Negri,
Mendelblatt, Scheidt, Kusznierewicz, Melleby, Rohart, Cayard, Marazzi,
Polgar, Szabo. But the last upwind mark highlighted the debut of Tomas
Hornos and Joshua Revkin, rookie of the year in the Star Sailors League
Ranking, in the top ten of the fleet. The victory in race 1 was taken by
Diego Negri, followed by Scheidt and Melleby.
Negri had
another great start in race 2 and the majority of the fleet headed to
the left of the race course, the favored side throughout the entire day.
But the first leg will be mostly remembered from the people who
followed the regatta live as they watched for the first time the
American Hornos leading the fleet according to the official tracking
service, followed by his compatriot Mendelblatt when fighting with
Polgar, Rohart. The first mark was very crowded as the top 12 entered
the turning area within few seconds. At that point Rohart and Stanjek
where in front but before the second mark they were passed again by
Negri. At the third mark Rohart and Stajek handed the lead to Negri and
Mendeblatt came second.
Swiss
Marazzi won the start of race 3 but Stanjek showed his strength again
when rounding the weather mark in the dominating position. Leg 2 and 3
appeared to be following a similar pattern until Scheidt changed his
pace and flew into a comfortable lead.
Competitors
were very surprised to see such an exciting and aggressive fourth race
of the day. The Dutch Postma made a big surprise staying for a long time
at the lead of the fleet when probably the top tiers didn't expect
there was room for a newcomer at the day 1. But it wasn't the only
highlight of race 4: the last race will be remembered for a long thanks
to a thrilling finish athletics-style when 5 boats approached the line
in a compact bunch, crossing it within 2 seconds each other.
This is
only the beginning of the Star Sailors League Finals, but is already a
proof of the high level of competition that comes from merging Star
legends with the unquestionable champions from Finn and Laser.
Quotes of the day
Robert Scheidt: "We
are happy with how things went today. I made some mistakes after the
start in the second and fourth race but we managed to climb back. We had
a good downwind speed that gave us the chance to come back to the race.
I'm pretty happy with that: four races in the top five. We're very
tired but I'm so happy. We're improving hour by hour. "
Mark Mendelblatt: "Nice
to be in the front. The goal is to make the top ten after nine races.
We feel good out there: good speed upwind, downwind was a little though
getting used to the new rules, where you can do whatever you want. We
improved on the day, I think. We are pretty happy. My key for the
performance today was probably the upwind speed. We are going well
upwind. In the time we had a bad start I was able to get out and we had a
couple of good shifts. So we were able to get right back in the race.
So the upwind was our strength today. In our very bad start we couldn't
make the pins so I had to bear away, we basically dipped all the fleet.
Luckily it was during a left shift when we did that. When we came out we
sailed for a while and then we got the right shift and when we tacked
we were in the front. So we got lucky. That was the trick."
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