Paul Goodison of the U.K., Francesco Bruni of Italy and Rome Kirby of the U.S. hold first, second and third, respectively, at the Bacardi Moth World Championship in Bermuda.
Benn Smith is now the leader of the Bermuda Fleet in 30th place with 151 Net Points, while National Champions Joshua Greenslade is in second with 166 Net Points and that leaves him in 33rd place.
James Doughty is in the 38th place with 202 Net Points, with Christian Luthi one spot back with 208 Net Points and Nathan Bailey round out the Bermuda sailors and is in 40th place with 209 Net Points.
Today’s conditions were far more manageable than yesterday’s blow out. But even though the northwesterly blew at a more manageable strength of 12-to-18 knots many competitors still suffered breakdowns that had them scrambling.
Goodison’s forestay broke during tune-up which forced him to miss the first race of the day. Kirby discovered a crack in his main vertical foil just before docking out. And Iain Jensen of Australia was forced to retire from Race 6, the fourth of the day, when his mainsheet broke.
“The mainsheet broke just below the splice,” said Jensen, who finished 1-2-1 in the first three races of the day. “The worst part is that I now have two discards in my scoreline, both due to rigging failures.” Jensen holds 10th overall with 54 points.
Goodison, the reigning two-time Moth world champion, leads overall with 6 points. He gave credit to Brett Moss (Brad Funk’s coach) and his girlfriend, Giulia Elba Masotto, as well as the Maguire Boats shore team for helping fix his problem expediently.
“The forestay broke at the terminal halfway up the first tuning leg,” said Goodison. “It caused quite a bit of damage with the rig falling down and the boom getting tangled up in the fairings. Luckily, Brett and Giulia helped tow me back to shore and the Maguire Boats shore team helped get the rig out and a rope forestay in place.”
Goodison made it to the racecourse for the day’s second race, which he won, but his rigging problems persisted.
“The rope forestay kept stretching so in between Race 4 and 5 I had to go capsize the boat to try and tighten it and I missed the start of Race 5,” said Goodison.
Goodison estimates he started Race 5 30 to 40 seconds late and even though he wasn’t at 100 percent performance he kept gaining on Jensen throughout the race. The two blazed down the run to the finish line, with Goodison making big gains by sailing lower and faster. Jensen won the race, but only by one boatlength in the closest finish of the regatta to date.
“It was quite an entertaining day,” said Goodison.
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