Tampa Bay produced another action-packed day at the J/70 World Championship, including a change to the top of the leaderboard. Two more races were completed, bringing the total to eight. Friday saw beautiful breeze again of 10-12 knots, blue skies and moderate temperatures at St. Petersburg Yacht Club in Florida. Tallying scores of 6,8 on the day, Tom Mallindine and Charlie Thompson’s Brutus III (GBR) soared to first place overall with 34 net points. The team also includes Chris Grube, Ben Saxton and Elisabeth Whitener. Peter Duncan’s Relative Obscurity (USA) suffered a 52 in Friday’s final contest, which becomes their discard, but leaves them with 41 net points for second place. Bruce Golison’s Midlife Crisis (USA) continued their climb after finishes of 2,6 brought them to third place at 59 net points. Racing concludes Saturday with two scheduled races commencing at 1000.
Andres Ducasse’s Ducasse Sailing Team (CHI) maintained the advantage in the 28-boat Corinthian Division. Tim Ryan’s Vamos (AUS) stayed in charge of the 13-boat One-Pro Division.
The all-amateur crew aboard FM, led by American Tod Sackett, checked off a bucket list item in winning the day’s opening contest. Golison and Gulboy Guryel’s Denizcik (TUR) rounded out the top three. Ignacio Perez’s Zaguero (MEX) added another country to the roster of race winners in the next duel, ahead of Ralph Rosa’s Mindset (BRA) and Bruno Pasquinelli’s Stampede (USA).
Eighty-three teams from 15 nations are competing from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Great Britain, Mexico, Monaco, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the USA. Photos/video are available via International J/70 Class social media, and complete results may be found at https://yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eid=15594.