Snipe Western Hemisphere & Orient Championship– Day 1 tough at the top

by Jerelyn Biehl on 1 Sep 2010 The days racing for the Snipe Western Hemisphere & Orient Champs looked bleak with the first start postponed due to a lack of wind.

But a little patience and a move of the race course closer to shore by IRO David Sprague brought the Championship to flat waters with 9-11 knots of breeze and light but beautiful conditions.

It’s tough at the top and after only 2 races 1 point separates the top 3 and another tight spread in the next tier. Alexandre Tinoco and Gabriel Borges of Brazil started off the regatta rounding the weather mark in first and extending their lead to lead wire to wire.

Multi-world Champ Augie Diaz with Kathleen Tocke crewing (USA) finished second and after two races the two teams are tied for first. Youngsters Raul Rios and Marcos Teixidor of Puerto Rico led race 2 from start to finish and also extended their lead significantly to take the second race win.

With the course moved closer to shore, the right was a bit favored with the wind coming from the west off the point. However the second race the velocity built and the fleet could be seen spread fairly evenly across the course.

Junichiro Shiraishi and Kogi Saito and teammates Shinichi and Michiko Uchida from Japan excelled in the lighter air to finish second and third in race 2.

Conditions for tomorrow’s racing is expected to be more of the same with a slight increase in velocity predicted.

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