Soto 40 class at Semaine de Porquerolles - Day 3

Everything decided

The protest between Bigamist and Noticia IV ended with a disqualification for the Spanish boat and placed the Portuguese Soto 40 as the virtual winner of this 16th Semaine de Porquerolles.

At the beginning of Saturday, the Spanish Noticia IV, property of Luis Martín Cabiedes, had the goal of recovering positions in the overall leaderboard and also wanted to end the day with possibilities of winning, but the strange last position that it achieved in the first race and the DSQ in the last one knocked down its plan.

As usual, conditions were unstable until the day wore on and in the first race of the day there was a change in the second leg to the windward mark which shortened the course.

In the first leg, the fleet sailed divided in the race area and when they reached the windward mark the wind changed its direction, while Pedro Mendonça's Bigamist and Juan Manuel Caldeira's Uon were starting a duel.

At the end of the race Bigamist achieved a solid victory, followed by Uon, showing a very important progress. Glen Ellen XXII ended in third position.

The seventh race started at 1:45 pm with a reset course that would be the same for the last race of the day.

The Spanish Noticia IV -with Pichu Torcida at the helm- decided to prove that the result of race 6 was a mirage and it dominated the race from the beginning to the end, crossing every single mark as the leader.

In the windward mark, Earlybird, property of Hendrik Brandis, and the Portuguese Uon were fighting for the second position. After the beam reach, the German boat decided to look for its own path by gybing first, with Bigamist at its stern, while the Portuguese boat chose to extend its course together with Noticia IV.

After crossing the race area, in the gybe that set the course to the leeward gate, a duel between the boat skippered by Pichu Torcida and the Portuguese Uon had already started.

The difference between the two leaders and the rest of the fleet was clear after the windward mark. Bigamist and Earlybird fought for the third position that finally achieved the German boat property of Hendrik Brandis.

The last race of the day started with a duel among Earlybird, Bigamist and Noticia IV; it would also include Uon later.

A tack in the arrival to the windward mark was the reason of the protest that the Portugese Bigamist submitted against Noticia IV (for sailing in the three length zone).

Finally the Committee decided to agree with the Portuguese boat and disqualified the Spanish boat, giving a virtual victory for the Portuguese boat.

The victory was for Hendrik Brandis' Earlybird. Pedro Mendonça's Bigamist arrived in second position, closely followed by José Manuel Caldeira's Uon.

The day came to its end with an almost certain champion, Bigamist, and also with the feeling that the improvements of the last boats that had joined the fleet predict a very competitive World Championship in Valencia.

As a good host in this Semaine de Porquerolles, Dominique Tian invited the crews of all Classes to an informal dinner at his home, which included the exquisite contribution of Earlybird's cook. Unluckily, some were absent because of the few options of transport from the island to the continent.

Results after Day 3:

1st Bigamist – Pedro Mendonça – 1/2/1/2/1/1/4/2 – 14pts
2nd Noticia IV – Luis Martín Cabiedes – 2/1/2/OCS/2/5/1/DSQ – 25pts
3rd Uon – José Manuel Caldeira – 5/5/5/1/3/2/2/3 – 26pts
4th Earlybird – Hendrik Brandis/Christian Nagel – 3/4/4/3/5/4/3/1 – 27pts
5th Glen Ellen XXII – Dominique Tian – 4/3/3/OCS/4/3/5/4 – 32pts

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