Two-time IOD World Champion John Burnham took the helm again today and drove the Burnham/Rugg IOD team to a comfortable third-place finish in what was the last race of the seven-race IOD ‘A’ Series to take home the series silver on the third day of racing in Bacardi’s Bermuda International Invitational Race Week. There are six races in the IOD ‘B’ series and then all 13 races are used to decide the overall winner of the Vrengen Gold Cup.
Bermuda’s Penny Simmons won the seventh race and jumped to second in the ‘A’ Series. He was followed Giles Peckham of Cowes UK who was just one point behind. Peckham had suffered with a seventh place in the seventh race after getting caught in the pin end crowd at the start.
Burnham said, “We were having fun out there. We’ve sailed together for a long time. The competition is very close in this fleet. We were leading a race today and missed a shift that set us back in fourth. It was very shifty all day.”
Peckham improved as the wind built to 20+ in the second and third races of the day as he got two bullets to set the pace for the ‘B’ Series. He is now five points ahead of Burnham/Rugg and eight ahead of Tyler Steel who sails for the N.E. Harbor, Main fleet.
“We finally got the hang of the shifts this afternoon, Peckham said. “Initially we were tacking on the shifts quickly and they would just keep on going. In the second race today we went all the way to the right hand corner, tacked and were lifted right up to the lay line.” Peckham and crew are five points ahead of the Burnam/Rugg team in the ‘B’ Series now but there are still four races scheduled for the IOD’s to make it complete.
Thompson Hangs on with One Point Etchells Lead
In the Etchells, Tim Patton with Peter Martin and Hal Kempe came back strong today after posting two fourth places yesterday. He had a second in the day’s first race and two firsts as the wind built to his liking.
The showing today wasn’t enough to take Patton past young Will Thompson, Somers Kempe and Adam Barboza. They posted a 1-2-2 today and lead Patton by one slim point 12 to 13 (low point wins). Great Britain’s James Hudleston/Valdimir Kolinchenko team stands a distant third with 28 points.
Etchells racing concludes Thursday. Two more races are scheduled to conclude the full slate of 11 races for that class.
Smith leads Lasers by Nine
On the Laser course each race was a windward leg followed by a reach and a windward leeward on an offset course. Past Sunfish world champion Malcolm Smith continued to pace the fleet. He had a 1-1-2 on the day and continued to lead by nine points. Two-time Race Week winner Rockal Evans climbed back to second place with a 3-3-1 showing while Brett Wright dropped a notch with a 4-4-4 score today.
In spite of being OCS in a race he apparently won, Bermudian Owen Siese remained in fourth place. So Bermuda sailors still hold the top four places in the Lasers. Mark May from the USA replaced Tobin Young from Canada as the top visitor. May is in fifth place. Young had an OCS in race 6 along with Siese. Thirteen races are scheduled for the Lasers which have completed ten after today.
