The second day of qualifying races for the Star Sailors League finals saw the judges run three races. As expected, northeasterly wind conditions continued in the waters of Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, which the day before, during the last race, brought a squall with gusts up to 25 knots. By morning it had stabilized at 12-18 knots. The race route was set outside Montague Bay to protect the competitors from the powerful Atlantic waves.
Two of the races were won by teams who weren't even in the top three the day before: the French duo of Xavier Rohart and Pierre-AlexisPonsot in the first start, and the Brazilians Jorge Zarif and Pedro Trouche in the second. In the last race of the day the best were Brazilians Lars Grael and SamuelGonçalves, who successfully repeated the plan that allowed themto win the second race the day before by taking a strong right.
« It's good to have a good plan that you can follow all the way to the finish, avoiding your opponents and staying slightly ahead of the majority. It was a textbook race»," Rogar said of the first race.
The top 5 overall had a lot of shifts. Day 1 leaders Robert Scheidt andHenry Boening, who earned 23 points in seven races, swapped places withMark Mendelblatt and BrianFatih.
«We are very lucky to have such an opponent; Robert is a terrific yachtsman, a real benchmark. So if you can keep up with him you are lucky»," Fatih said of Scheidt.
If the day before the gap was two points, it has now narrowed to one, but in favour of Mendelblatt and Fatih. And this despite the fact that they had finished fifteenth in the first race on the day, and fourth in the second and third races. At the same time, Scheidt and Benig's score was 2:12:3. The fact that they were able to not only hold on to the overall leaderboard, but also improve their position was a big surprise to Mendelblatt and Fatih.
«It was a battle for the right to stay in the gap on the leeward side»," Fatih said of the day.
Jorge Zarif and Pedro Truchet (31 points), who were not in the top five on the first day, took third overall. Their team not only won the second race but also had the best result of the day compared to all other competitors: fourth place and then first and second. According to Zarif, such a great result was due to his experience in the class «Finn».
« In today's conditions it was free to pumppin'. I'm from Finn, and on those boats it's one of the most important things we do. Today we tried to pump and pump as much as we could, although we also had to beat the waves and shift the rudder»," said the yachtsman.
Zareef and Trouche edged out Italy's Diego Negri and Germany's Frithjof Kleen who had to relegate from third to fourth after two days of 32 points. Another newcomer to the top five at the end of day two was the 39-point holders, the Norwegian-American duo of Eivind Melleby and JoshuaRevkin.
The Poles Mateusz Kusznierewicz and DominikZycki, who were at the bottom of the day before, are now sixth. They are now in sixth place with a total of 48 points. And the Americans Augie Diaz and Bruno Prada (Brazil), who were in the fourth place, by the end of the second day managed to take 54 points, and now are ninth at all.
Team of Russian Georgy Shayduko and Ukrainian Vitaly Kushnir, who missed the first day of competition due to bad health of Shayduko, on the second day ranked 11th, 18th and 19th places out of 25. In the general rating they are on the 23rd place with 126 points. Ruggero Tita and EnricoVoltolini are only 6 points ahead of 22nd placed Italians.
«Today all the riders were flying up and down in the standings:Fredrik Lööf finished behind us in the second race, and then, in the top five .Australian Hamish Pepper and Croatian Tonči Stipanović, and many other guys took off. The competition is really tough. We had some problems on the full course, but we are gradually solving them. The task of getting into the top 15, unfortunately, will not be solved due to missing the first day, but we will try to work hard tomorrow and please our fans with good arrivals», - promised Georgy Shajduko.
The British-Swedish duo of Iain Percy and AndersEkström, who had missed all four races yesterday, didn't take to the start again on the second day.
We shall remind you, that 10 best crews in qualify races will get a ticket to Srar Sailors League quarterfinal. They have one more day to secure their place in the top. Now the Hungarian-Czech crew of Zsombor Berecz andMichael Meier, having got 56 points, is on the 10th position.
« Four races are ahead. It is a long way to go. Let's see what happens tomorrow»," Jorge Zarif prefers not to guess.
Almost all crews still have a chance to dramatically change their position in the standings.
