Pepper and Williams add another good result at the Star Worlds

by Jodie Bakewell-White

Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams have added another good result to their scorecard, finishing 2nd in this morning’s race at the 2008 Star World Championship in Miami.

The kiwis are now in 18th place overall after four races with the discard likely to affect overall placings after the next race. Two more races are scheduled to be sailed over the next two days to decide the 2008 Star World Champion.

Race four of the regatta got underway on Biscayne Bay, Miami just prior to 1 o’clock after one prior general recall. The breeze was northerly offshore and built to 20-30 knots for race four.

“Today the order of the day was Breeeeeezze! And as it was blowing offshore it was always going to be EXTREMELY shifty,” said Carl Williams after racing. “It’s always hard on a really windy day in big regattas like this because everyday you have to push hard and sail at your absolute limit.

“The reason it’s hard is because survival is added to the elements and this was prudent today as out of the 104 starters, there were 27 boats that did not finish the day due to either damage or gear failure! Broken masts, sails and holes in boats you could park your car in!”

Pepper and Williams were third to the first mark in the enormous 104 boat fleet and then improved on that passing O’Leary and Milne of Ireland and climbing into second place.

“We started at the committee boat and tacked out to the right straight away. At this stage all the sails were doing is ragging!” said Williams. “But despite the fact that we had flags for sails we picked up the first shift of the beat and were able to get some leverage on the fleet.

“Due to the windy conditions the race course was set with a reach mark, which is very old school style of racing but a hell of a lot of FUN! Blast reaching in 25knots we rolled the Irish and set on tracking down the Polish, rounding the bottom mark in 2nd.”

Their gap on the chasing pack diminished on the final leg and it was all on between a handful of boats to cross the line.

“BRA, FRA, SWE had closed right up and while the POL were defending us in a match race style the BRA and FRA took a flyer out to the left. Hamish and l focused on pinning our ears back and sailing as fast as possible.

“As we all came together at the finish (upwind) the BRA picked up enough of a shift to sail through and take the bullet, we were able to cross the FRA and also beat the POL by about one foot!! But that’s enough.”

They held onto cross the line in second place behind Scheidt and Prada of Brazil.

Negri and Viale of Italy currently hold the lead in the Championship going into the penultimate day of competition, with Kusznierewicz and Zycki (POL) and Loof and Ekstrom (SWE) on equal points behind them.

Competitors can exclude their worst score when more than four races are completed which means the line-up is likely to see some changes after the next race is on the board. Provided Pepper and Williams perform well in race five this will see them climb up the standings, as they’re still carrying a blag flag from race two.

“There are two races left and after tomorrow we get to drop the BFD/105 result putting us right back up there!! Looking forward to it as these World Champs are shaping up for a pretty awesome battle at the top!” said Williams.

Racing continues tomorrow with two more races remaining in the Championship which concludes in Miami on Thursday afternoon (early Friday morning New Zealand time).

2008 Star World Championship
PROVISIONAL Overall Standings after Race Four

1st ITA Negri, Diego/Viale, Luigi – 40 points (3, 3, 25, 9)
2nd POL Kusznierewicz, Mateusz/Zycki, Dominik – 49 points (1, 1, 44, 3)
3rd SWE Loof, Fredrik/Ekstrom, Anders 49 points (27, 8, 9, 5)
4th AUS Murray, Iain/Palfrey, Andrew – 51 points (11, 11, 5, 24)
5th BRA Scheidt, Robert/Prada, Bruno – 52 points (37, 12, 2, 1)

18th NZL Pepper, Hamish/Williams, Carl – 122 points (12, 105/BFD, 3, 2)

2008 Star World Championships