British successes continue in IC 45 Clean Marine Winter Series 3 - Day1

by Sue Warden-Owen on 10 Mar 2001 The opening day of the final regatta in the Clean Marine IC 45 Winter Series 2001, saw Barlo Plastics IC 45,
skippered by Adrian Stead and helmed by Olympic Gold Medalist Ben Ainslie, make a solid start to their bid for
overall Series victory.

Racing commenced today on the waters of the Bay of Palma de Mallorca at 12:00 in 12-15 knots of offshore breeze
and quite shifty conditions, which coupled with clear blue skies made for some excellent sailing conditions. The fleet
of seven yachts, representing four nations, once again experienced exceptionally close racing as they battled to
clinch victory at the finale of the three event Series.

The first race of the day saw Barlo Plastics IC 45 leading at the first windward mark and also at the bottom mark,
however two places were then lost when their jib jammed, taking about 2 minutes to hoist. Barlo Plastics sailed well
to overtake the Spanish boat, La Casera, but finished in second place behind David Mclean's Babbalaas.

Race 2 also saw Barlo Plastics leading the fleet at the first windward mark, but a costly mistake on the first run saw
two boats overtake her coming into the bottom mark. The Swedish team aboard SEB took first place, ahead of La
Casera and Barlo Plastics in third. The third race however saw Ainslie secure an excellent start and a return to the
recent good form for Barlo Plastics who led all the way round to take their first victory of the deciding regatta.

Barlo Plastics also led at the top mark in the fourth and final race of the day, however a tactical attempt to slow down
their closest rival, La Casera, proved costly when two boats overtook Barlo Plastics and an average sail down the run
saw La Casera get past too. La Casera went on to take 1st place whilst the British boats Bounder and Barlo Plastics
took 2nd and 3rd respectively. Ainslie commented, 'We made another small mistake which lost us some ground,
although we managed to get back to 3rd place in the last run. I'm happy with the good solid results today, but a bit
frustrated with the few small errors on board. Tomorrow we'll need to sail better and not make any mistakes - I know
that we can do exactly that, so we're all looking forward to a good day's sailing.'

Commenting on today's close racing, trimmer Hugh Styles said, 'We lead every race today at some stage, so
tomorrow we just need to make sure that when we lead, it's at the finish of each race.'

Barlo Plastics are in joint 1st place overall after today's 4 races with La Casera (9 points) and racing continues
tomorrow, Saturday 10th March and Sunday 11th.