20th September 2003 - Day Three

The sailors left shore in another land breeze of 12 knots. For the second race the breeze dropped and veered right over 90 degrees on the left side of the course, causing the green fleet's second race to be abandoned. The Yellow fleet finished the last leg of their second race as the breeze swung on the last leg. The second races for the Red and Blue fleets were shortened before the unstable wind affected their race. The Green fleet were held on the water for 2 hours and were rewarded with an eleven knot breeze which held just long enough for them to complete a short race, and which gave all fleets the opportunity to have the programmed lay day.

In today's racing Gustavo Lima POR (Yellow) and Andrew Murdoch NZL (Red) both had double victories in their respective fleets. In the first race Gustavo started towards the pin end of the line and sailed almost to the port layline to be equal leader at the first mark. On the second windward leg he rounded the bottom mark and sailed further to the right than the rest of the fleet, when they came together again he held a 30 second lead, a testament to the shifting breeze. From there he easily held his lead for a comfortable win. In the second race Gustavo rounded the top mark in fifth position and had to work a lot harder to in the end score a narrow victory over Maciej Grabowski POL.

Murdoch on the other hand had both his victories as leader all the way. Defending champion Robert Scheidt BRA was the only other sailor in the top ten who had consistent results with a first and a second in the blue fleet. The other race winner in his fleet was Maxim Semerkhanov RUS.

In green fleet racing Marc de Haas NED beat Michael Blackburn AUS, the second race was won by Robbie McMillan NZL.

After today's final qualification heats the fleet will be split into four groups for six races of finals fleet racing to commence on Monday 22nd September. The championship remains wide open with only 27 points between the top twenty in the fleet.

Overall Results after 6 races with one discard:

1. Gustavo Lima POR 6pts
2. Robert Scheidt BRA 9pts
3. Michael Blackburn AUS 13pts
4. Andrew Murdoch NZL 13pts
5. Vasilij Zbogar SLO 13pts
6. Gustav Carlsson SWE 20pts
7. Luis Martinez ESP 20pts
8. Brendan Casey AUS 20pts
9. Peter Santen SWE 22pts
10. Mark Mendelblatt USA 23pts

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