Brazil’s Jorge Zarif and Guilherme de Almeida take the overall lead after two more races at the 2018 Star World Championships in Oxford, Maryland, USA
Thursday’s race wins went to Zarif and de Almeida (1,4) conquering the windy third race of the series, and to the USA’s Paul Cayard (7,1) with Arthur Lopes (BRA) for the tricky fourth one.
Zarif and de Almeida now lead by eight points after four races, with the Cayard and Lopes in second. In third place are Hubert Merkelbach and Markus Koy (5,2) of Germany, but they are 18 points off the second place.
After the three podium teams the scoring settles down, with George Szabo and Roger Cheer (13,8) just a point back on 39 points, then six teams covered by ten points, so plenty of place changing still possible.
Race 3 finally started under the black flag. Augie Diaz and Bruno Prada (4,22) led at the first mark but were quickly overtaken by Zarif and de Almeida, who kept their lead to the finish and their first win of the series.
Jørgen Schönherr and Jan Eli Gravad (2,24) of Denmark took second with Emilios Papathanasiou and Antonis Tsotras (3,12) of Greece third.
Eivind Melleby and Joshua Revkin who had crossed the finish line in second were later disqualified.
In race 4, in a lighter breeze, the first downwind leg was a bit of a gamble with a 25° right hand shift but Merkelbach and Koy played the shift right to take the lead.
A few course changes later and a tricky last downwind that actually finished with the fleet sailing upwind, saw Cayard and Lopes cross the line first.
Second were Merkelbach and Koy, then Tomas Hornos with Pedro Trouche (8,3) in third.
The 2018 Star World Championship is now back on schedule with four races completed and the weather forecast is looking good for the next couple of days.
2018 Star World Championship – Leaders after 4 races (60 entries)
1st Jorge Zarif – Guilherme de Almeida BRA 2 3 1 4 – – 10 pts
2nd Paul Cayard USA – Arthur Lopes BRA 8 2 7 1 – – 18 pts
3rd Hubert Merkelbach – Markus Koy GER 9 20 5 2 – – 36 pts
4th George Szabo USA – Roger Cheer CAN 14 4 13 8 – – 39 pts
5th Diego Negri – Sergio Lambertenghi ITA 6 6 10 19 – – 41 pts
6th Jørgen Schönerr – Jan Eli Gravad DEN 3 13 2 24 – – 42 pts
7th Peter Vessela – Phil Trinter USA 7 11 20 5 – – 43 pts
8th Tomas Horno – Pedro Trouche USA 25 9 8 3 – – 45 pts
9th Augie Diaz USA – Bruno Prada BRA 5 16 4 22 – – 47 pts
10th Andy McDonald – Brian Nichol USA 13 7 11 18 – – 49 pts