Another good day for Percy and Mitchell

As the Star's Bacardi Cup concludes with Portugese winners

Following their victories yesterday and the day before Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell finished the final race of the series in second place, to take sixth place overall. The overall winners with a race to spare were the Portugese duo Afonso Domingos and Bernardo Santos who didn't sail today. They are the first Europeans to win this sailing regatta since the race first run with ten boats in Havana in 1927.

Canadians Ross Macdonald and Mike Wolfs took second overall and Colin Beashel and David Giles of Australia took third. Americans Howie Shiebler and Will Stout followed in fourth with defending Bacardi Cup champion Peter Bromby and crew Lee White fifth in the final standings.

“Winds were shifty all week and we enjoy those conditions,” said Domingos. “This is the best Star Class regatta in the world and we’re honoured to have done so well against a fleet of this caliber,” he said.

Friday’s race was won by Americans John Maccausland and Brad Nichol with Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell second. There was a tie for third between Beashel and Giles and the French 2003 World champions Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau.

“Our next goal is to win the U.S. Olympic Trials and we’ve been working hard to finish really strong, “ said Maccausland. “The Bacardi Cup, which I’ve sailed every year since 1981, is a great event. When you ask sailors which is their favorite event, it’s the Bacardi Cup for sure,” he said.

Xavier Rohart admitted that “we finally woke up.” The French team did poorly in the first four races and placed third on the fifth day.

The sixth race was delayed more than an hour with unsteady 12-knot winds coming from the north to northeast. After two general recalls, 20 boats jumped the start and were disqualified including many of the Star Clas elite – Mark Reynolds (USA), Vince Brun (USA), Marc Pickel(GER), Flavio Marazzi (SUI), Jali Makila.(DEN).

“Today wasn’t very good, we went over the line early,” said Reynolds. “You always want to win,” said the former Olympian and Star Class World champion, “but we’re also out here gauging the strength of the competition going into the U.S. Olympic Trials.”

The German team of Michael Koch and Markus Koy found the races tough. “We’re not used to such difficult wind conditions. It’s very professional and high level amateur and I’m quite proud to sail against yellow stars,” he said.

Results

Pos	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot
1	Afonso Domingos & Bernardo Santos	7	7	1	2	7	(94\DNS)	24
2	Ross Macdonald & Mike Wolfs	3	13	5	5	11	-27	37
3	Colin Beashel & David Giles	15	10	16	3	-22	3.5\TIE	47.5
4	Howie Shiebler & Will Stout	26	5	4	8	6	-31	49
5	Peter Bromby & Lee White	-18	1	13	17	16	5	52
6	Iain Percy & Steve Mitchell	(94\BFD)	8	44	1	1	2	56
7	John Maccausland & Brad Nichol	14	-37	30	11	4	1	60
8	Xavier Rohart & Pascal Rambeau	21	14	-41	19	3	3.5\TIE	60.5
9	Hans Spitzauer & Andreas Hanakamp	8	-51	2	20	18	17	65
10	Flavio Marazzi & Enrico De Maria	9	4	24	22	8	(94\OCS)	67
11	George Szabo & Mark Staube	(94\DNF)	15	3	33	20	8	79
12	Michael Koch & Markus Koy	11	19	35	7	(94\OCS)	14	86
13	Andy Macdonald & Austin Sperry	19	20	-28	10	23	16	88
14	Jali Makila & Erkki Heinonen	29	17	18	13	13	(94\DNF)	90
15	Mark Neeleman & Peter van Niekerk	(94\BFD)	12	22	30	12	18	94
16	Riccardo Simoneschi & Marco Marenco	-44	30	12	21	15	19	97
17	Rick Merriman & Bill Bennett	5	47	-52	9	28	10	99
18	Eric Doyle & Brian Sharp	22	23	-73	6	31\RDG	20	102
19	Marc Pickel & Ingo Borkowski	2	11	61	14	17	(94\OCS)	105
20	Karl Anderson & Ezra Culver	28	16	-63	15	30	25	114
21	Arthur Anosov & Dave Caesar	-40	29	25	18	21	21	114
22	John Dane III & Henry Sprague	6	27	31	-42	19	34	117
23	Peter Wright & Dan Wright	(94\BFD)	24	14	23	31	26	118
24	Augie Diaz & Hal Haenel	25	-56	17	44	26	13	125
25	Mark Reynolds & Steve Erickson	12	9	(94\OCS)	4	10	94\OCS	129
26	Alexander Hagen & Wolfram Jochen	13	46	50	(94\OCS)	9	12	130
27	Aaron Serinis & John Avis	35	-64	27	28	35	6	131
28	Erik Lidecis & Darrell Hiatt	(94\DNF)	32	33	26	25	23	139
29	Peter Vessella & Brian Fatih	24	45	-48	35	27	9	140
30	Nicklas Holm & Claus Olesen	23	18	69	29	2	(94\OCS)	141
31	Bill Allen & Brad Lichter	-55	21	9	38	38	39	145
32	Pat Londrigan & Christian Finnsgard	(94\BFD)	22	11	45	59	11	148
33	Steven Kelly & William Holowesko	27	-57	10	51	32	42	162
34	Vince Brun & Mike Dorgan	17	2	46	(94\DNS)	5	94\OCS	164
35	Jock Kohlhas & Jon Rogers	41	43	-72	47	14	22	167
36	Maxwell Treacy & Anthony Shanks	16	(94\OCS)	94\OCS	25	29	7	171
37	Andrew Hurst & Ed Peel	54	(94\OCS)	15	39	36	30	174
38	Ben Cesare & Sergey Leonidor	52	34	-74	16	48	24	174
39	Andy Lovell & Magnus Liljedahl	10	42	8	24	(94\DNS)	94\DNS	178
40	Todd Gay & Jon Klenk	-47	31	43	37	42	29	182
41	Marko Dahlberg & Ville Kurki	32	6	19	32	(94\OCS)	94\OCS	183
42	Argyle Campbell & Dmitry Yakovenk	45	-63	26	57	41	15	184
43	Tony Herrmann & Todd Raynor	46	35	36	41	-53	35	193
44	Jon Vander Molen & Steve Ticknor	(94\BFD)	36	67	36	34	41	214
45	Brian Cramer & Eric Monroe	36	58	53.5\TIE	-64	40	32	220
46	Joe Zambella & Jeremy Davidson	31	25	66	53	45	(94\DNS)	220
47	Daniel Wyss & Beat Stegmeier	50	-61	38	56	49	28	221
48	Nelson Stephenson & Carsten Witt	-61	41	34	52	60	37	224
49	Michael Hicks & Patrick Hicks	20	69	20	(94\DSQ)	24	94\OCS	227
50	Rick Brethorst & Matt Pederson	58	-72	21	48	51	50	228