Percy and Simpson bounce back to Win race five

by Janet Maizner / sail-world on 18 Apr 2008
Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson came back from a black flag disqualification in race two and a snapped shroud in race four to win race five and be in 50th overall. Third at the first weather mark , they were into the lead at the second mark and stayed that way to the line. Diego Negri and Luigi Viale of Italy finished second and John Dane and Austin Sperry of the USA came in third.

'We had a good race today and sailed like we should have sailed the rest of the week,' said Percy. 'It was tricky with no wind and big shifts all the way around the course, but we got the right side on the first shift and did better than our disasters earlier this week.' Simpson added, 'We finally got it right.'

Big wind shifts from the Northwest to the East with winds ranging from 8 to 20 knots were accommodated with two start line resets and a change on the course after the second weather mark today in the 2008 Star World Championships at Coral Reef Yacht Club.

The Polish team of Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki, finished fourth today and moved into first place overall after the fifth race in the six race series. 'Everyone near us on the start got a black flag,' said Kusznierewicz. 'It was a difficult beginning and we started late, but safe.'

Deep in fleet rounding the first weather mark, the Poles picked up great speed, changed their tuning three or more times, and made their way to the top of the fleet. 'The communication between me and Dominik was great. When I didn’t know what to do, he did and when he didn’t know, I did,' explained Kusznierewicz. By the second leeward gate, they had passed almost 30 boats and were in 10th and striking distance for the beat to the finish line.

Diego Negri and Luigi Viale took second place in today’s fifth race in the series and moved into second place overall. 'This was the best birthday present, I couldn't have asked for better,' said Diego.

The very first time Negri and Viale sailed together was the 2006 European Star Championships where they came in fourth. Their boat was old and literally taped together and they said they actually had to call some friends to figure out the rigging. That’s when they decided to name their boat 'Lady Mianda,' Mianda, which literally means old underwear, but in their Ligurian dialect means old sails or not very good sails.

Negri has been to the Olympics twice for Lasers and was at one time ranked 4th in the world. He decided to switch to Stars when he wasn’t having fun anymore. 'Racing Stars was like going home for me,' he said. 'At our first competition I saw Pepper, Scheidt, Mendelblatt, guys I used to race against in Laser.'

Star - Leading positions after five races and lowest score discarded:

1 POL 8170 Mateusz Kusznierewicz Dominik Zycki 1 1 44 3 4 9pts
2 ITA 8266 Diego Negri Luigi Viale 3 3 25 9 2 17
3 BRA 8255 Robert Scheidt Bruno Prada 37 12 2 1 14 29
4 NZL 8187 Hamish Pepper Carl Williams 12 105.0 [BFD] 3 2 15 32
5 GER 8333 Marc Pickel Ingo Borkowski 5 105.0 [BFD] 6 18 5 34
6 USA 8267 Mark Mendelblatt Mark Strube 2 6 32 17 11 36
7 SUI 8296 Flavio Marazzi Enrico De Maria 6 14 47 10 8 38
8 FRA 8107 Xavier Rohart Pascal Rambeau 26 21 1 4 20 46
9 SWE 8331 Fredrik Loof Anders Ekstrom 27 8 9 5 49 49
10 AUS 7836 Iain Murray Andrew Palfrey 11 11 5 24 31 51
11 JPN 8144 Kunio Suzuki Daichi Wada 9 15 10 105.0 [DSQ] 19 53
12 USA 8195 John A Maccausland Kevin Murphy 15 4 8 27 56 54
13 USA 8230 John Dane III Austin Sperry 10 105.0 [BFD] 40 6 3 59
14 IRL 8158 Maxwell Treacy R Anthony Shanks 7 105.0 [BFD] 17 15 26 65
15 USA 8260 Carl Buchan Jamie Buchan 31 7 12 16 39 66
16 POR 8309 Afonso Domingos Bernardo Santos 21 10 37 14 22 67
17 CAN 8291 Ross Macdonald Steve Mitchell 25 9 7 105.0 [DNF] 30 71
18 AUT 8226 Hans Spitzauer Christian Nehammer 14 18 23 19.0 [AVG] 21 72
19 USA 8312 Rick Merriman Brian Sharp 58 20 29 19 6 74
20 CRO 8339 Marin Lovrovic Jr Sinisa Mikulicic 29 2 64 21 25 77
21 GER 8109 Robert Stanjek Markus Koy 18 105.0 [BFD] 26 25 18 87
22 IRL 8261 Peter O'Leary Stephen Milne 19 5 36 105.0 [DNF] 36 96
23 USA 8285 Augie Diaz Phil Trinter 49 13 28 23 32 96.0001
24 ITA 8290 Silvio Santoni Dodo Natucci 22 23 42 12 47 99
25 USA 8250 Andrew Macdonald Brian Fatih 52 27 18 36 29 110
26 BRA 8337 Alan Adler Ronald Seifert 16 32 56 7 105.0 [BFD] 111
27 USA 8273 George Szabo Rick Peters 39 25 50 35 12 111
28 ESP 7581 Roberto Bermudez Marcelo Ferreira 28 105.0 [BFD] 16 13 61 118
29 USA 8177 Jud Smith Terry Yuill 51 16 14 105.0 [DNF] 38 119
30 SUI 8232 Henrik Dannesboe Edward Morey 34 37 11 38 41 120
31 GER 7860 Werner Fritz Uli Seeberger 44 31 15 31 105.0 [BFD] 121
32 BRA 8284 Lars Schmidt Grael Marcelo Jordao 62 105.0 [BFD] 20 26 17 125
33 ITA 8348 Luca Modena Sergio Lambertenghi 24 17 33 105.0 [DNF] 53 127
34 ARG 8003 Alejo Rigoni Gustavo Gonzalez 33 29 38 41 27 127
35 DEN 8218 Benny Andersen Mogens Just 36 105.0 [BFD] 4 29 59 128
36 ITA 8332 Enrico Chieffi Nando Colaninno 32 19 45 105.0 [RAF] 34 130
37 ARG 7907 Fabian Mac Gowan Federico Engelhard 50 26 34 33 40 133
38 CAN 8143 Brian Cramer Tyler Bjorn 47 22 68 20 48 137
39 CRO 8280 Dan Lovrovic Marin Lovrovic Sr 40 30 105.0 [OCS] 28 50 148
40 BRA 8282 Alessandro Pascolato Henry Raul Booning 105.0 [BFD] 43 41 51.3 [AVG] 16 151.3
41 USA 8156 Andy Horton Andrew Scott 13 105.0 [BFD] 24 105.0 [DNF] 10 152
42 CHI 8319 Rodrigo Zuazola Robert Riegel 65 105.0 [BFD] 19 30 43 157
43 SWE 8298 Tom Lofstedt Krister Carlsson 69 48 58 39 13 158
44 DEN 8343 Joegen Svendsen Jens Christian Jurlander 46 55 81 22 35 158
45 GER 8213 Peer Wilhelm Nils Hollweg 43 41 30 46 70 160
46 IRL 8254 Maurice O'Connell Ben Coe 30 105.0 [BFD] 21 8 105.0 [BFD] 164
47 USA 8136 Henry Filter Will Wagner 54 45 74 47 23 169
48 RUS 8305 Sergey Shevtsov Roman Sadchikov 23 105.0 [BFD] 59 37 51 170
49 NED 8277 Sjaak Haakman Wietze Zetzema 45 40 53 43 42 170
50 GBR 8345 Iain Percy Andrew Simpson 8 105.0 [BFD] 60 105.0 [DSQ] 1 174