New course, New leader at Snipe Western Hemispheres

San Diego, CA (September 11, 2014) – Argentinian skipper Luis Soubie and crew Diego Mini Lipszyc have been steadily climbing the ranks throughout the first four days of racing at the Snipe Western Hemisphere & Orient Championship. The pair held the third overall position after day two, moved to second place on day three and now at the end of day four are sitting as the current regatta leaders.

It was a perfect weather day for sailing, but not a perfect day of racing for Raul Rios and Fernando Monllor. After two days in the No. 1 spot, the Puerto Rican pair weren’t able to break out of the middle of the pack on day four. With a 15th place finish in Race 7 and a 26th place finish in Race 8, Rios and Monllor fell to third overall.

After the past two days on the ocean course, today’s racing took place on the inside South Bay course with winds of 11-13 knots.

Four races have now been sailed on each course, and depending on whether a team has a preference for bay or ocean sailing, tomorrow’s location announcement could hold some major weight. Soubie and Lipszyc have done exceptionally well in the ocean races with scores of 8-2-1-2, while Rios and Monllor have had the best ocean scores with 1-3-3-4.

The third force to watch out for tomorrow is the Brazilian team Breno Bianchi and Flavio de Castro, who are back to where they started after day two, in second-place overall.

This regatta has featured some serious winning streaks, but as today’s scores demonstrated, all it takes are a couple of races to completely change the game. Also changing the game will be the second throw-out score, which will come into play after the completion of Race 9.

There are two anticipated races for the final day of racing tomorrow. The location will be announced the morning before racing, and the first warning signal is set to go off at 1200.

Day Four Standings (Top 5 of 43; 8 races; 1 discard)
1. Luis Soubie/Diego Mini Lipszyc (ARG), 3-[8]-8-2-1-2-2-5- ; 23
2. Cachorrão, Breno Bianchi/Flavio de Castro (BRA), 6-2-7-1-2-11-5-[12]- ; 34
3. Raul Rios/Fernando Monllor (PUR), 9-1-1-3-3-4-15-[26]- ; 36
4. Alexandre Tinoco/Alexandre Niederauer (BRA), 12-4-5-10-[17]-9-3-6- ; 49
5. Rafael Gagliotti/Henrique Wisniewski (BRA), [27]-27-10-4-5-5-9-4- ; 64

Event website – Complete results

Report by event media. Photo by John Payne.