Bromby takes command

Disappointment for Beadsworth and Carr in race five of the Star's Bacardi Cup in Miami

Olympian Peter Bromby and crew Rick Peters had a neck and neck race from the start to finish line with Howie Shiebler and crew Anson Stookey in race five of the Star class' Bacardi Cup. Two-time champion Bromby won it and is now in first place overall.

“Good things happened to us today,” said Bromby. “We had a good lead on most of the fleet from the start and at the windward mark we were pleasantly surprised to see two of our closest competitors on the board, ” he said. Both Mark Mendelblatt and Vince Brun, who were first and second place overall on day 3, were disqualified for false starts today.
Mendelblatt drops to second overall and Brun, who was in second, drops to seventh overall. “I felt it was pretty darn close, but I was called at the line. We had a good first beat, but then they told us about the OCS and we had to drop out, ” said Brun.

According to Shiebler who finished in the number two spot today, “we caught Peter on the run and got even halfway up the beat. I thought we had him at the end, but he had more pressure left of us. We tried to play the averages, but it didn’t work out, ” he explained. Shiebler moves up from 17 overall to third.

George Szabo and crew Christian Finnsgard finished in third place today holding onto their ninth place overall. John MacCausland and crew Brian Fatih came in fourth in today’s race and are in now fourth overall jumping up from 18th. Andy Macdonald and crew Austin Sperry took 5th today and are in 8th position overall.

Predicting what may happen on Day 6, Shiebler said it best "tomorrow will be refreshing; no one can afford a throw out and Peter and Mark will have the advantage."

Andy Beadsworth reports on his day:

We dropped our rig today to check it over and make sure all the setting were correct after yesterday's two race blow.

There was a bit of reluctance by the fleet to leave the dock today, after we all spent an hour reaching around preserving our sails yesterday. However just as we were going to leave the dock the wind started to moderate, we quickly changed back to our standard mainsail.

Arriving at the start with just enough time to check our set up and the line, the race officer got straight into it on time. Unfortunately for some they only just made it to the start.

The wind was again out of the NW, gusty and shift. The line was biased to the pin and the good guys were all down there. We set up away from the boat, maybe ten boats up. With 20 seconds to go we were close and couldn't defend and someone came in to leeward of us. 190 seconds to go and those tight on the line were trying to reach down it. Vince Brun went from just to windward of us to just to leeward of us in the last 10 seconds. An individual recall was signalled. We were okay but boats around us were not, although they are not pulled out till the windward mark.

We bounced around trying to get to some clear air and water without sailing on terrible shifts. Eventually we got out to the right of the fleet and sailed our own race taking small chunks back to the left when we could on good headings. It worked out well and we rounded the windward mark in tenth. Both Mark Mendelblatt, the regatta leader and Vince Brun, the overall second, were both pulled out for being premature at the start along with four others.

The wind started to die down the first run and by the time we came back upwind there were huge holes on the course and the wind flicked through 30 degrees. We found a hole and had to sail a bad header to get back into the breeze it cost us a lot and we were sucked back into the teens. We recovered back to 10th at the top of the beat with a small cushion on behind and two boats within striking distance ahead.

For a while we had less than five knots and the fleet was spread over the course. We spotted more pressure high but the majority of the fleet were low. We got some of it and gybed back into the middle to reduce the risk against the group of 20 or more boats on the other side of the run who looked to be making gains. However the boat that stayed up in the pressure not only passed us but five or six others too, we could hardly see him he was so far ahead of us. Damn frustrating. On the last beat we could only defend
our position unless someone made a big mistake.

We finished 11th.

Unfortunately all the boats near us overall all finished ahead of us leaving us in 12th overall with really only a small chance of making the top ten with a good result tomorrow. 3-10 are all within a few points but we are seven points behind 10th. Very disappointing.

We don't seem to have gotten the breaks this week. Especially on the the first beats. Maybe its just the big fleet and we have not adapted well. We have been fast and generally sailed well over the course of the race, overtaking 15 boats or more during the races. Just always had nearly double that in front of us at the first mark.

We will continue to keep trying to do our best tomorrow not worrying too much about the points overall. A top five tomorrow would make us feel an awful lot better.

Overall Bromby has moved into the lead with Mendelblat very tight behind. All the top 10 have had their discard so no one can afford a bad race tomorrow.

Results:

Pos	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Tot
1	Bromby Peter	Peters Rick	3	19	2	6	1	12
2	Mendelblatt Mark	Strube Mark	2	5	1	4	71.0 [OCS]	12
3	Shiebler Howie	Stookey Anson	1	71.0 [OCS]	6	8	2	17
4	Maccausland John	Fatih Brian	6	71.0 [OCS]	7	5	4	22
5	Merriman Rick	Nichol Brad	9	3	5	14	6	23
6	Domingos Afonso	Santos Bernardo	5	23	10	2	7	24
7	Brun Vince	Brophy Doug	4	1	4	18	71.0 [OCS]	27
8	Macdonald Andy	Sperry Austin	10	27	12	1	5	28
9	Szabo George	Finnsgard Christian	12	18	3	11	3	29
10	Diaz Augie	Schofield Bob	7	2	21	10	16	35
11	Anosov Arthur	Caesar David	8	4	16	17	9	37
12	Beadsworth Andy	Carr David	11	14	8	21	11	44
13	Allen Bill	Lichter Brad	18	6	11	15	18	50
14	Kelly Steven	Holowesko Bill	20	38	9	9	15	53
15	Perce Hyde	Nielson Chris	22	10	17	13	13	53
16	Rotermund Philipp	Holweg Nils	13	11	15	16	71.0 [OCS]	55
17	Cramer Brian	Greensmith Iain	28	7	20	12	19	58
18	Serinis Aaron	Avis John	21	8	13	20	48	62
19	Lidecis Erik	Marzahl Michael	15	22	19	71.0 [DNS]	12	68
20	Anderson Karl	Hopple Peter	17	46	29	23	8	77
21	Londrigan Jr Tom	Wallner Chris	71.0 [BFD]	16	28	24	10	78
22	Bainton Joseph J	Sharp Roger J	14	17	26	34	46	91
23	Hicks Michael	Hicks Patrick	19	25	71.0 [DNS]	27	20	91
24	Campbell Argyle	Yakovenko Dmitry	16	42	40	19	17	92
25	Brown Steve	Monroe Eric	26	20	23	38	27	96
26	Herrmann Tony	Monroe Scott	40	9	24	42	24	97
27	Nehammer Christian	Mitterhauser Grunther	27	26	30	22	25	100
28	Gay Todd	Klerk Jon	38	36	18	26	21	101
29	Folsetter Doug	Scott Larry	71.0 [RAF]	37	25	7	34	103
30	Vanderhoff John	Parrish Andrew	23	13	41	37	37	110
31	Kohlhas Jock	Zirkle Richard	33	31	52	32	14	110
32	Vander Molen Jon	Ticknor Steve	29	32	31	36	22	114
33	Hendershot Will	Vranderick Alain	31	35	34	25	28	118
34	Teitge Bob	Burgess Rick	50	12	37	39	35	123
35	McNeil Kevin	Mininger Seth	47	71.0 [OCS]	22	28	33	130
36	Hampe Axel	Wagner Stefan	44	24	33	31	42	130
37	Bainton Jr Joseph	Rogers Chris	25	34	27	71.0 [DNS]	45	131
38	Lehnert Stefan	Menning Peter	30	29	42	45	30	131
39	Weissenberger Gunti	Brown Chris	55	15	38	33	47	133
40	Meyer Klaus	Boguhn Lutz	36	40	32	30	71.0 [DNS]	138
41	Vander Molen Tom	Jackson Dave	37	39	49	44	23	143
42	MacDonald Gary	Leonidov Sergey	32	45	44	29	39	144
43	Rickard Jack	Valasek Marek	48	41	36	35	32	144
44	Brethorst Rick	Pederson Matt	34	44	48	71.0 [OCS]	29	155
45	Tamburini Antonio	Ricci Renzo	43	33	39	41	71.0 [OCS]	156
46	Collins Bert	Avellon Guy	46	53	46	40	26	158
47	Vessella Peter	Trinter Phil	71.0 [DNC]	71.0 [OCS]	14	3	71.0 [OCS]	159
48	Swigart William	Heckmann Jeep	45	28	71.0 [DNS]	46	40	159
49	Mccarthy Gene	Mccarthy Glenn	49	30	55	43	44	166
50	Chiarella John	Carlson Bob	39	43	50	47	41	170
51	Haarstick Steve	Schumacher Todd	35	49	35	71.0 [DNS]	52.0 [ZFP]	171
52	Stephenson Nelson	Chard David	41	47	47	48	71.0 [DNF]	183
53	Babel Jim	Hawk Bill	52.0 [AVE]	21	45	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [OCS]	189
54	Lehner Marko	Langmaak Helge	60	54	43	49	49	195
55	Vander Molen Jim	Waldorf Mac	42	52	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	36	201
56	Bucher Hans	Dutton Todd	59	63	53	50	43	205
57	Rowse Sam	Bowers Robert	56	48	51	71.0 [DNS]	57.0 [RDG, 57.0]	212
58	Zambella Joe	Costa Peter	24	50	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	216
59	Bonanni Claude	Sinner Philip	58	62	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	31	222
60	Hopkins Sam	Kaplan Bart	63	58	54	71.0 [DNS]	51	226
61	Parks Bill	Anderson Clark	51	51	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [RAF]	244
62	Wilson Kris	Elsaesser Bud	62	64	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	50	247
63	Joyce William A	Berger Thomas	54	57	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	66.0 [ZFP]	248
64	Walker Harry	Warren Alan	52	56	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	250
65	Kohlermann IV Charles	Kohlermann III Charles	53	59	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	254
66	Fields Bill	Butler Chad	57	60	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	259
67	Von Schwarz Karl	Vosbery Barbara	61	61	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNF]	264
68	Thomsen Dierk	Thomsen Lars	71.0 [DNC]	55	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNF]	268
69	Voight Henning	Struve Dirk	71.0 [DNC]	71.0 [DNC]	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	284
69	Rubinkam Steve	Eggen Michael	71.0 [DNC]	71.0 [DNC]	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	71.0 [DNS]	284