MACCAUSLAND and MURPHY take the lead

Double World Champions Xavier ROHART and Pascal RAMBEAU (FRA) win day three in Miami but John MacCAUSLAND and Kevin MURPHY move into first position tied on points with Australians Iain MURRAY and Andrew PALFREY.

With less than four knots of wind, the Race Committee at the Star Worlds Championship waited, reset the start line, and waited again for the wind to pick up. Almost an hour and a half later, it edged up to a shifty seven knots. The 104-boat fleet crossed the start line with only four boats OCS.

Both John MACCAUSLAND and  Kevin MURPHY (USA), who finished eighth, and Iain MURRAY and Andrew PALFREY (AUS), who took a fifth place, ended the day with 27 points each. Yesterday’s fourth place finish by MacCausland broke the tie.

“I feel wonderful!” said MacCAUSLAND. “We’ve sailed a lot this winter with reasonable finishes in several events, but nothing great.” He explained that he and Kevin made some changes in their sails and in other areas and can now “race the race with the other guys.”

In third place overall is the Italian team of Diego NEGRI and crew Luigi VIALE despite a 25th place finish today. 

Konstantin DATSENKO and Olexandr YEVSEYENKO (UKR) were first to round the weather mark followed by defending Star Worlds Champions Robert SCHEIDTand crew Bruno PRADA (BRA), Star World Champion Hamish PEPPER and Carl WILLIAMS (NZL), Xavier ROHART and Pascal RAMBEAU (FRA) and Gastao BRUN and Fabio Kraiczyk (BRA).

The Race Committee made a course change on the downwind leg when the wind shifted to the right. At the first leeward gate, SCHEIDT and PRADA grabbed the lead from the Ukranians and Iain MURRAY and Andrew PALFREY (AUS) and Marc PICKEL and Ingo BORKOWSKI (GER) moved ahead of BRUN and KRAICZYK and the French team.

The course was changed again on the fourth leg with another wind shift to the right. Two-time Star Worlds champions ROHART and RAMBEAU rounded the second windwark mark in first position with PEPPER and WILLIAMS behind them and MURRAY and PALFREY in third followed by SCHEIDT and PRADA and Benny Andersen ANDERSEN and Mogens JUST (DEN).

At the second leeward gate, ROHART and RAMBEAU was still leading with SCHEIDT and PRADA and PEPPER and WILLIAMS close behind and MURRAY and PALFREY overtaken by Carl BUCHAN and Jamie BUCHAN (USA).

ROHART and RAMBEAU and SCHEIDT and PRADA were only eight seconds apart as they crossed the finish line. PEPPER and WILLIAMS finished a minute later.

“Today we had good clean air with a start right near the Committee Boat and we used our magic speed especially on the second upwind leg,” ROHART explained. “It was just like always, SCHEIDT on one side, PEPPER on another, but we were happy that they were behind us,” he said.

According to SCHEIDT, “The French team sailed well and protected themselves once they got the lead. It will be a mixed up series,” he said, “and the game is still open.” SCHEIDT thought the right shift would come and it did and he had good speed coming around the first mark and the second leg. “Biscayne Bay is hard to predict – sometimes you’ll be right.”

For daily results, photos and video visit www.starworlds2008.com or www.starclass.org 

Day Three Standings:
1. MacCausland, John/Murphy (USA) 15, 4, 8 TP 27.00
2. Murray, Iain/Palfrey, Andrew (AUS) 11, 11, 5 TP 27.00
3. Negri, Diego/Viale, Luigi (ITA) 3, 3, 25 TP 31.00
4. Suzuki, Kunio/Wada, Daichi (JPN) 9, 15, 10 TP 34.00
5. Mendelblatt, Mark/Strube,Mark (USA) 2, 6, 32 TP 40.00
6. Macdonald, Ross/Mitchell, Steve (CAN) 25, 9, 7 TP 41.00
7. Loof, Fredrik/Ekstrom, Anders (SWE) 27, 8, 7 TP 44.00
8. Kusznierewicz, Mateeusz/Zycki, Dominik (POL) 1, 1, 44 TP 46.00
9. Rohart, Xavier/Rambeau, Pascal (FRA) 26, 21, 1 TP 48.00
10. Buchan, Carl/Buchan Jamie (USA) 31, 7, 12 TP 50.00