Star Sailors League- Another day, another series leader

by Bob Fisher on 5 Dec 2014 Thursday 4th December 2014: The first of the day’s races was held in 15-18 knot breezes from just north of east and the start was keenly contested, particularly at the pin end, where several appeared to be fractionally ahead of the gun, but there was no recall. Those who continued on starboard tack came off best.

At the weather mark it was Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih (USA) who led the fleet after a 1.2 mile beat and they never looked challenged despite the best efforts of Germany’s Johannes Polgar and the man-mountain Markus Koy. Current Olympic champions Freddy Loof and Anders Ekstrôm gained one place on the second run to finish third.

One heartening result for the veterans was the fifth place of Torben Grael and Guilherme de Almeida of Brazil, who after three last places yesterday because of a delaminating keel, finished fifth.

Mendelblatt was to the fore again in the second race, once more a two round windward/leeward affair. He followed Diego Negri and Sergio Lambertenghi of Italy around the first mark and then showed superior speed and skill to lead from Xavier Rohart and Pierre-Alexis Ponsot of France at the end of the first run,

There was no stopping Mendelblatt and he went on to take his second gun of the day, this one from the Frenchmen with the tyros to this class, Croatians Ivan Gaspic and Ante Sitic who, both Finn sailors, are showing the habituees of this class the way to achieve more speed downwind.

It wasn’t until the last race, a five legger over a shorter 0.8-mile course, that any of the nineteen showed sufficient speed to challenge the pair from the Tampa Bay fleet. Then it was Polgar and Koy who held off the Floridians to take the gun. They are now third on overall points with 21, three behind the current champions, Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada, who, in turn, are ten points behind the day’s top team, Mendelblatt and Faith, who have eight points.