Bete Leads Going Into Final Day at SNIM
Day three report from Justin Chisholm in Marseille where the 60 strong Melges 24 fleet is having a storming weekend - "Today the race officer showed her class by holding her nerve to wait over two hours for a sea breeze to develop. When it did it was a pleasant 15 knots producing planing conditions downwind and sloppy wave patterns upwind. For the first race the starboard end of the line was busy and several boats executed last second bail outs to avoid rafting up. A number of boats were black flagged. Maxime Paul on Big ship led at the top mark and extended throught the race to win easily.
Race two was a little windier and the left paid upwind. Stuart Simpson's Team Barbarians, helmed by Jamie Lea, led at the windward mark narrowly from Simoneschi. These two were neck and neck down the fast downwind leg. At the gate Barbarians forced Simoneschi to the less favoured left hand gate mark. On the final run Bete made a huge gain to move from 4th to 2nd and challenge for the lead. Barbarians held their nerve to take the gun.
In the last race of the day some of the fleet were caught out by a much shorter beat laid close to the neighbouring big boat fleet. Benjamin Cohen's Sogeti Transiciel made the best of the situation to lead from start to finish. Immediately after the fleet had finished the breeze shut off leaving the teams with a long sail in."
On the overall leaderboard the Italian Bete team of Amadori Ezio are having a storming regatta with a score of 31 points so far and going into the final day the trophy is theirs to loose. Benjamin Cohen's Sogeti Transiciel from Monaco are in second place ahead of Philippe Ligot's Partner & Partners from La Rochelle, helmed by Francois Brenac, with Italy's Maurizio Abba in fourth.
One more race is required for the second discard to kick in so the final day of racing is set to be a hum dinger as the crews battle it out for the prestigious SNIM Trophy and the first victory of the European Ranking Series 06.