2006 Bacardi Cup Regatta at Biscayne Bay, Miami - Day 3

Andy Beadsworth & David Carr win on day three of the 79th Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta © Alex Gort

Mark Reynolds & Christian Finnsgard lead after day three of the 79th Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta © Alex Gort

Seven-Time Bacardi Cup Champion Mark Reynolds takes overall lead in quest for Record Eighth Bacardi Cup Title

Fourteen boats Black Flagged for early starts on day three

Two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and Seven-Time Bacardi Cup Champion Mark Reynolds, sailing this week with Swedish crew Christian Finnsgard, took the overall lead at the 2006 Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta with a 12th-place finish in Tuesday’s third race. Sailing out of San Diego, California, Reynolds currently shares his record seven Bacardi Cup titles with legendary Star sailor Ding Schoonmaker of Naples, Florida.

Andy Beadsworth and crew David Carr of Great Britain won Tuesday’s race, well ahead of second place finishers Xavier Rohart and crew Pascal Rambeau of France. With today’s performance and a third place finish on day two, Rohart and Rambeau, the 2005 Star World Champions and number-one ranked Star tandem in the world, move from seventh to third in the overall standings. Joseph Londrigan and crew David Giles of Springfield, Illinois, finished less than a boat length behind Rohart in third today and move to 14th overall.

Reynolds holds a slim three-point lead in the overall standings, moving just ahead of John Dane and crew Austin Sperry, a father and son-in-law tandem that sails out of Gulfport, Mississippi. First overall after two races, Dane and Sperry drop to second overall, just one point ahead of Rohart and Rambeau.

A total of 14 boats were black flagged and disqualified Tuesday for early starts. The casualties included Marc Pickel and crew Ingo Borkowski of Germany and Two-time Bacardi Cup Champion Peter Bromby and crew Bill McNiven, the overall third and fourth place teams respectively going into today’s race.

Tuesday’s race was sailed in winds that escalated from 15 to 25 knots out of the Northwest and followed a combination triangle and windward-leeward course on the waters of Biscayne Bay. The former Olympic-style course is not sailed regularly in the Stars, and the addition of two reach marks caught many of the sailors by surprise.

“We had to make special preparations at the last minute, but we were fortunate that we have the training to do those tough reaches,” said Finnsgard.

Sailing with very good speed, Beadsworth started in the middle of the fleet, as Dane and Reynolds led a large group that elected to attack the right side. After rounding the first mark in second, Beadsworth was successful in gauging wind shifts and found clear water to lead the fleet rounding the gybe and leeward marks. He lost most of his 10-boat-length when he was unable to leverage strong right-hand pressure on the final run, but held off a charging Rohart and Londrigan to the finish line.

Update from Team O'Connell & Peel:

After consulting with the ISA medical team in Dublin, we have decided to discontinue racing and for Prof to fly home to get his back injury attended to.

Whilst this is very disappointing for us as we were looking forward to achieving a good result here, it is in the best long term interests of our campaign to get this sorted 100% before the European season starts in earnest.

Our next event is the Spring European Championships in Naples on April 14th. There is a small possibility that we will do Garda Olympic Week on March 22nd, but we will make a call on that next week.

Thanks for all your messages of support, they mean a lot.

Results after Day 3: