Star Sailors League- Day 2 - Mendelblatt leads followed by Scheidt

by SSL Media on 5 Dec 2014 Today brought another great day’s sailing in the Bahamas for the Star Sailors League Finals 2014. Once again the action was dominated by Americans Mendelblatt/Fatih, who snatched the leadership from Scheidt/Prada two-thirds of the way through qualifying.

Spectators were treated to three races, in great wind, featuring fiery duels between the 20 excellent teams invited to this top-level event. Once again, a large following of fans watched the action live at live.starsailors.com. They witnessed a rare spectacle indeed: up-close-and-personal sparring, high tension manoeuvres and errors, surprise results and much more besides. All live in HD from the water backed up by Virtual Eye 3D sports graphics. To top it all off, the event’s main patron’s four-time America’s Cup winner and former Star Class World Champion, Dennis Conner, paid a visit to the studio.

15 to 20-knots of wind set the tone for the first race of Day 2 and the fourth in the Star Sailors League Finals. After an excellent start, Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih held onto their lead for the duration. Leg 1 brought lively sparring all the way to mark between the illustrious Germans Johannes Polgar and Markus Koy, Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada, and Torben Grael and Guillerme de Almeida.

The Americans rounded the windward mark first, followed by Polgar and Koy. Scheidt and Prada missed the first turn at the top buoy, losing four positions in a very close-knit race. In Leg 2, Mendelblatt and Fatih extended their lead on the rest. In the end, somewhat surprisingly, the first 10 across the line were Mendelblatt, Polgar, Loof, Kusznierewicz, Grael, Negri, Scheidt, Stanjek, Rohart and Gapsic with provisional overall leadership of the regatta going to the Americans.

The fleet stayed tight in this second race of the day with excitement at every mark. Negri and Lambertenghi hit the front at the first upwind mark, as Papathanasiou and Tsotras scampered out of teh way to avoid a collision. Melleby and Strube did a penalty turn just before the first downwind, but recovered to finish 13th. Negri and Lambertenghi and Rohart and Ponsot sparred for first place downwind, with just 20 metres between them.

After a poor start, Scheidt and Prada clawed their way back to the top four in the final leg, battling hard with Rohart and Ponsot and Gaspicand Sitic. The Croatians stayed in the top five overall after finish fourth. Junior and Pritchard started the final leg in sixth and hung on in the top 10 overall, while Mendelblatt and Fatih led 150 metres at the line to take their second win of the day and now top the qualifying ranking. I

n Race 6, the wind picked up and the current intensified. Loof and Ekstrom started behind everyone else but then zeroed in on the top 5 after the second leg. Grael and Almeida had a great start, but could only finish in ninth. Three of the four Brazilian teams worried the leaders throughout. However Zarif and Boening challenged early on, this time securing third behind Mendelblatt and Fathi and Scheidt and Prada.

After a fine start, Polgar and Koy took the lead at the second buoy and held it to the end. Adrenaline was high for the five leaders of the pack, helping them pull away in the final legs. Szabo and Natucci followed in sixth their best performance yet.

At the end of Day 2, the provisional rankings are topped by Mendelblatt and Fatih, a comfortable 10 points ahead of Scheidt/Prada and 13 in front of Polgar/Koy. Tomorrow evening, winner excluded, the crews ranked from second to 11th will go forward to the final phases of the event. The winner from the quaifiying races will get a bye for the first race. Up to three races may still be competed in the eliminators, but right now, there are six teams separated by less than 10 points.

Three races are scheduled for tomorrow with the first warning signal at 1100 local time with fierce competition expected to the very last.

Provisional ranking after six races with one discard:
1. Mendelblatt/Fatih (USA) - (1+[10]+3+1+1+2)
2. Scheidt/Prada (BRA) - 18 pp ([7]+1+2+7+4+4)
3. Polgar/Koy (GER) - 21 pp ([9]+3+6+2+13+1)
4. Loof/Ekstrom (SWE) - 22 pp (4+[12]+4+3+6+5)
5. Rohart/Ponsot (FRA) - 29 pp (6+2+[13]+9+2+10)
6. Negri/Lambertenghi (ITA) - 29 pp (5+5+[10]+6+5+8)
7. Kusznierewicz/Zycki (POL) - 36 pp (10+8+[12]+4+7+7)
8. Zarif/Boening (BRA) - 37 pp (15+7+1+[17]+11+3)
9. Scott/Milne (ENG) - 39 pp ([13]+4+5+11+8+11)
10. Gaspic/Sitic (CRO) - 46 pp ([14]+14+7+10+3+12)