Leaderboard upturned

Germany moves into pole at the Audi Sardinia Cup

Team Germany, comprising the Farr 40 Struntje Light owned by Wolfgang Schaefer and the Melges 32 Teasing Machine owned by Jean Francois Cruette, dominated today’s coastal race and now sits atop of the overall leaderboard in the Audi Sardinia Cup – ISAF Offshore Team World Championship, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. With racing scheduled to continue for a further two days and a maximum of a four more races to be disputed before the final prize giving on Saturday 3rd July, all is yet to play for.

Following the Jury’s decision regarding protests yesterday evening the overall classification was completely revised and the eight competing teams headed into today’s race led by Italy 2 (Joe Fly and B Lin Sailing) in first place, Germany (Struntje Light and Teasing Machine) in second and Italy (Nerone and Fantasticaaa) in third. As a result of Germany’s faultless performance on today’s 16 nautical mile course, the team is now followed at the top of the leaderboard by Italy 2 and USA with the Farr 40 Barking Mad and the Melges 32 Bliksem.

Germany’s two bullets today leave them on 34 points, 10 points ahead of Italy in second place. The Italian team, one of two competing in the World Championship, managed a 5th place with Giovanni Maspero’s Joe Fly and a seventh with B Lin Sailing.

Francesco Bruni, tactician on board Joe Fly, admitted that the home teams did not shine on the water today: “The Germans sailed better than us, and by us I mean the Italians in general. The Italians chose to stay close to the coast while the Germans looked for the open water and it was the right decision. The wind this week has been very light and shifty, definitely difficult conditions. Struntje is very fast in these conditions and they are sailing really very well. The championship is still completely open however, with four more races to be run everything can change.”

Team USA moved up the classification today to third place thanks to Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad taking a second place coupled with a fifth place gained by Pieter Taselaar’s Bliksem. They sit on 47 points, just one point ahead of fourth placed Italy 2.

Today’s race was the only coastal one scheduled for the event and took the fleet north through the islands of the La Maddalena archipelago to round Monaci island and down to the shortened finish at Mortoriotto island. The race started in approximately 7-8 knots of northerly breeze which had fallen to approximately 5 knots and shifted to 120° by the time the fleet finished.

Racing is scheduled to continue tomorrow, 2 July at midday. Northerly breezes of approximately 10 degrees are forecast.

Audi Sardinia Cup Provisional Overall Team Results after Day Three:

1- GERMANY: STRUNTJE LIGHT (3,6,6,1,1,1 =18 ); TEASING MACHINE (3,3,1,4,4,1 =16): Total 34
2- ITALY 2: Farr 40 JOE FLY (1,5,3,5,3,5 =22); Melges 32 B-LIN (1,1,7,5,1,7 =22): Total 44
3- USA: BARKING MAD (7,3,4,2,2,2=20); BLIKSEM (2,6,5,3,6,5=27): Total 47
4- ITALY: NERONE (5,2,1,4,4,6=22); FANTASTICA (7,7,4,2,2,4=26): Total. 48
5- MALTA: ENFANT TERRIBLE (4,1,2,6,DSQ,4 =26); RUSH DILETTA (4,5,3,1,DSQ,2= 24): Total. 50
6- MONACO: PLENTY (2,4,5,3,5,7 = 26); AUDI GIACOMEL (6,2,2,8,DSQ,8 =35): Total. 61
7- UNITED KINGDOM: MANGUSTA RISK (8,7,8,7,6,3=39); NGONI (5,4,8,6,5,6=34): Total. 73
8- SWITZERLAND: VANITAS CUBE (6,8,7,8,7,8= 44); I.NOVA 2 (8,8,6,7,3,3=35): Total. 79