Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Bruno Prada again dominated the Bacardi Cup fleet for their second win in two races.
Race 2 of the 95th Bacardi Cup got underway after a second attempt. Kusznierewicz and Prada (POL 8548) took their second win, finishing ahead of Eric Doyle and Payson Infelise (USA 8423) with Ireland’s Peter and Robert O’Leary (IRL 8465) in third place.
Overall Kusznierewicz and Prada, have a three point lead with a tiebreak between Doyle and Infelise, who won here in 2019, and the O’Leary brothers who sit on 5 points apiece.
Diego Negri and Sergio Lambertenghi (ITA 8567) are in fourth place with Eivind Melleby and Joshua Revkin (NOR 8543) fifth.
Britain’s Ed Wright and Alberto Ambrosini (8320) finished in 11th place and Ante Razmilovic and Dave Martin (GBR 8443) in 16th and are now 13 and 18 overall.
A perfect day delivered as good as Star Class racing gets, with a consistent south-easterly breeze of around 12-15 knots, waves serving up full hiking upwind legs and super surfing conditions downwind for the 110 minutes, 9 nautical mile race.
The teams who played the left side of the track got crushed and a significant number overstood the port tack layline, leading to a crazy and close mark rounding.
A significant gap unfolded between the top seven boats and the rest of the fleet. Heading upwind, Kusznierewicz and Prada extended their lead, with Diaz and Nehammer, the O’Leary brothers and Negri and Lambertenghi battling it out for second place.
Onto the final upwind, the brothers got forced a bit past the layline, giving Doyle and Infelise the advantage to move into second by a couple of meters, the Irish in third and Italians fourth.
2022 Bacardi Cup Invitational Regatta – Leaders after 2 races (58 entries)
1st POL 8548 Mateusz Kusznierewicz / Bruno Prada 1 1 – – 2 pts
2nd USA 8423 Eric Doyle / Payson Infelise 3 2 – – 5 pts
3rd IRL 8465 Peter O’Leary / Robert O’Leary 2 3 – – 5 pts
4th ITA 8567 Diego Negri / Sergio Lambertenghi 4 4 – – 8 pts
5th NOR 8543 Eivind Melleby / Joshua Revkin 6 7 – – 13 pts
6th USA 1988 Paul Cayard / Frithjof Kleen 10 6 – – 16 pts
7th USA 8509 Augie Diaz / Christian Nehammer 12 5 – – 17 pts
8th USA 8459 Erik Lidecis / Greg Smith 7 15 – – 22 pts
9th USA 8464 Jack Jennings / Pedro Trouche 13 9 – – 22 pts
10th USA 8573 Peter Vessella / Phil Trinter 8 18 – – 26 pts
11th CRO 8540 Tonci Stipanovic / Tudor Bilic 9 19 – – 28 pts
12th USA 8570 Doug Smith / Stuart Macintosh 19 10 – – 29 pts
13th AUS 8320 Ed Wright / Alberto Ambrosini 18 11 – – 29 pts
14th USA 8555 John Dane III / Tim Ray 17 12 – – 29 pts
15th USA 8448 John MacCausland / Rodrigo Meireles 5 28 – – 33 pts
16th USA 8440 Jim Buckingham / Phil Toth 25 8 – – 33 pts
17th USA 8504 Scott Barnard / Brian Terhaar 23 13 – – 36 pts
18th GBR 8443 Ante Razmilovic / Dave Martin 20 16 – – 36 pts
19th SUI 8575 Piet Eckert / Frederico Melo 14 24 – – 38 pts
20th GER 8446 Hubert Merkelbach / Kilian Weise 16 22 – – 38 pts
