A Tie At The Top After Day 3 of Farr 40 Worlds
Plenty and Struntje light tied while Enfant Terrible tumbles from first
CHICAGO, IL (October 8, 2018): Competitors at the Farr 40 World Championship have emphasized that consistency is key and that is what Alex Roeper's Plenty had going for them today. Day Three's racing has both Plenty and Wolfgang Schaefer's Struntje light tied at the top with 27 points. Chicago's weather swung 180 degrees overnight to a shifty southerly breeze bringing unseasonably warm temperatures and flat seas. Unfortunately, the oscillating air refused to settle, bringing an early end to the day after only two races.
The first race dethroned and derailed Alberto Rossi's Enfant Terrible when they tacked within the three boat lengths circle at the first windward mark trying to shoot the mark and edge out Plenty. Plenty protested, and Rossi's team went into their penalty turns just outside the windward mark. The Italian team couldn't regain their ground as the rest of the fleet slipped past for the remainder of the day.
"If you get a protest in those conditions, you're in trouble," sympathized Roepers. "You've got a lot of boats coming at the same time and you have to step out to do your 720. It takes tremendous mental toughness and good luck to come out of that."
Luck wasn't on the Italian team's side as they continued to fall in the rankings sliding seven points behind both first place Plenty and second place Struntje light. "We are fast downwind, but today, we went to the right side and it turned out to be the slow side," said Struntje light's owner Wolfgang Schaefer. "We were quick upwind, though. We were usually leading at the windward mark, but we couldn't bring it home at the end."