Polish Finn Olympic Champion Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Brazilian five-time Star World Champion Bruno Prada are 2020 Bacardi Cup Trophy wunners, with a day to spare.
Kusznierewicz and Prada rounded the first windward mark in the unusual position of 10th, a place they had not found themselves in all week.
Tack after tack they worked their way through the tough opposition to put in another powerful performance and cross the finish line in second, securing the 2020 crown of one of the oldest trophies in the sailing arena with a race to spare.
Irish brothers, Peter and Robert O’Leary scored their second win of the series and are now in third overall.
Despite scoring their worst result of the series, a ninth place, Eivind Melleby (NOR) and Joshua Revkin (USA) retain second place.
Saturday’s final race will be a gruelling battle to complete the 93rd Bacardi Cup leaderboard, with the top seven teams separated by just 12 points and all in reach of a podium finish.
Star – Bacardi Cup after race 5, 1 discard (65 entries)
1st POL 8548 Mateusz Kusznierewicz / Bruno Prada 2 1 1 1 2 – – 5 pts
2nd NOR 8234 Eivind Melleby / Joshua Revkin 4 3 3 3 9 – – 13 pts
3rd IRL 8458 Peter O’Leary / Robert O’Leary 1 7 18 8 1 – – 17 pts
4th USA 8509 Augie Diaz / Henry Boening 7 2 5 4 10 – – 18 pts
5th USA 8466 Paul Cayard / Pedro Trouch 3 9 17 2 7 – – 21 pts
6th ITA 8533 Diego Negri / Frithjof Kleen 5 6 6 6 5 – – 22 pts
7th USA 8423 Eric Doyle / Paison Infelise 9 8 23 5 3 – – 25 pts
8th USA 8129 George Szabo / Guy Avellon 13 5 2 13 33 – – 33 pts
9th DEN 8532 Jørgen Schönherr / Markus Koy 8 4 19 18 6 – – 36 pts
10th GER 8446 Hubert Merkelbach / Arnis Baltins 17 14 8 10 8 – – 40 pts
11th USA 8203 Brian Ledbetter / Magnus Liljedahl 11 17 4 16 11 – – 42 pts
12th BEL 8379 Manu Hens / Joost Houweling 6 11 21 11 19 – – 47 pts
13th USA 8464 Jack Jennings / John Von Schwarts 20 13 39 17 4 – – 54 pts
14th USA 8459 Peter Vessella / Phil Trinter 14 19 11 12 22 – – 56 pts
15th USA 8518 Doug Smith / Brian O’Mahony 15 10 14 21 31 – – 60 pts
