SSL Team Bermuda produced a thrilling final-leg surge to edge Mexico by three seconds in Race 4 on Guanabara Bay, leaving the battle for a Copa do Mundo da Vela finals berth finely poised heading into Sunday's double-points decider.
On a brisk 'Samba Saturday' in Rio de Janeiro, eight national teams across Groups H and I continued their fight for the final three qualification spots for sailing's equivalent of the Football World Cup.
With 15-knot breezes testing crews across the fleet, Cuba initially seized control of Group I's fourth race. Winning the pin end of the startline while El Salvador started at the committee boat, Cuban helm Nelido Manso López judged the early shifts to perfection, tacking right to cross the fleet by more than 100 metres.
Behind the runaway leaders, Mexico rounded the first windward mark narrowly ahead of Bermuda, with El Salvador trailing in fourth.
The stronger breeze punished any lapse in boat handling. Cuba's crew averted disaster at the leeward gate by hauling a dropped spinnaker out of the water before it could drag, while El Salvador lost ground struggling to sheet in their jib.
Cuba appeared in complete command when they rounded the final windward mark 24 seconds clear of Mexico, with Bermuda still sitting third.
However, the final downwind leg turned the race on its head. As Cuba lost crucial ground on the left side of the course, Bermuda and Mexico powered down the right. In a neck-and-neck gybing duel to the finish, Bermuda rolled past Mexico in the final seconds to claim a stunning comeback win by just three seconds, with Cuba crossing 10 seconds adrift in third.
"It was an epic, epic downwind and the whole crew went 100% fast, fast, fast, the whole way down," said SSL Team Bermuda grinder Max Curtis. "I've probably never spun the handles that fast in my life! We were just wide open. There was great communication between us and the trimmer, the tactician and the skipper. We just banged every single manoeuvre to get us down to that finish."
Reflecting on overtaking Cuba and bouncing back from a dramatic Friday, Curtis added: "They pretty much opened the door for us, so we just took the opportunity, banged our big manoeuvres and it was a whole team effort.
"I fell out of the boat yesterday, and coming from that and still coming first, and then redoing it all over again today – the team's just locked right in now and it's all to play for in the next race. The whole team's hungry right now and we're going into tomorrow."
The victory sets up a grandstand finish on 'Golden Sunday'. Mexico hold a slender one-point lead over Bermuda at the top of Group I, with Cuba just two points further back. With double points on offer in the final group race—and a 'Last Chance' race awaiting the four teams vying for the final qualification spot—El Salvador will need everything to go their way to stay in contention.
