#MELGES – The three races won by Riccardo Simoneschi (Milan, Italy) in the 21-boat Melges 24 class, plus a fifth-place finish in the third race of the day, moved him up one place in the overall standings, just three points behind Franco Rossini (Switzerland) whose finishes of 2-4-2-2 kept him in the top spot with 10 points. Conor Clarke (Ireland) dropped from second to third overall with 19 points after finishes of 6-2-6-4 today. Kristen Lane (Tiburon, Calif.) with 23 points and Alan Field (Los Angeles, Calif.) with 35 complete the top-five.
"We definitely had less wind than yesterday," said Franco Rossini. "There has been a problem with areas with no wind and that caused some challenges and it has been a busy day out there with four races. Our competitor Riccardo Simoneschi had a very good day, it was their day. I think the tactician did an excellent job and his is the team we will look closely at tomorrow. We will do our race, but will definitely keep an eye on him as we would like to take home Bacardi Miami. Overall we're very happy and the sail change we made is paying off."
Maurice O'Connell adds: Day 2 was only so-so on Conor Clarke's "Embarr", unless you were a tourist!
14 - 17 knots of breeze and blazing sunshine did alleviate our disappointment a little at finishing 2,6,6 & 4 in the four races today.
We dropped to 3rd overall after Ricardo Simmoneschi on "Audi" has a stellar day, scoring 1,1,5,1 and leapfrogged both ourselves and "Blu Moon" to jump to the top of the leader board.
There is only one race today so am afraid we will be in "defensive" sailing mode, protecting 3rd overall because 2nd and 1st are out of reach.
Kristen Lane, racing "Brickhouse 812", with multiple Olympic medallist Charlie McKee calling tactics, can get to 3rd overall but need to win the race today and we need to finish less than 5th.
More later folks...
