Samba Saturday Shakes Things Up at the SSL Gold Cup Pan-American Qualifiers
The penultimate day of a regatta is often called ‘Moving Day’, but here in Rio it has to be ‘Samba Saturday’, as the eight national teams vying for the final three tickets to the Copa do Mundo da Vela, the Football World Cup in Sailing, continued their dance on Guanabara Bay.
The leaderboards in both Group H and I were taking shape with two clear leaders, but anything can happen with the double points race on Sunday, and then the ‘Last Chance’ race which will see the pressure go up to the next level as four teams battle for that final coveted place in the finals.
With another great breeze forecast, but a little less of the sunshine we were blessed with yesterday, it was another great day to be out on the water.
Group H, Race 4
Venezuela and Puerto Rico nailed the start perfectly on the committee boat and pin ends respectively in Group H, leaving Uruguay and Antigua & Barbuda with work to do.
A broken jib sheet through a tack meant Puerto Rico had to head left to make a repair as the other three teams went out to the right hand side of the race course, heading towards Sugarloaf Mountain.
With the massive separation it was going to be intriguing as to where Puerto Rico would come out approaching the windward mark, and the live leaderboard showed them climbing the ladder as they converged.
The perfect 12 knot breeze saw the athletes projecting their bodies as far outside the powerful SSL 47 yachts as they could to gain every fraction of a knot possible.
It was Antigua & Barbuda who had played the shifts perfectly to lead at the windward mark, with just three seconds separating the chasing pack.
The sun came out as the Rum Runners flew downwind, extending away from the pack as Group leaders Uruguay struggled at the back following a gybe-set.
Behind the leader it was super tight at the leeward gate with Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela rounding nose to tail.
On the final upwind leg Uruguay climbed to second, overhauling Puerto Rico, who lost further ground as their spinnaker retrieval caught, bringing Venezuela right back into the game and resulting in a penalty for Puerto Rico for not sailing their proper course.
At the front Uruguay found big breeze on the left to power past Antigua & Barbuda to take the win, leading to a huge celebration on board, while Venezuela’s third place meant the battle for the Last Chance race in Group H is well and truly on.
SSL Team Uruguay’s Trimmer Federico Waksman explained how they ground out the result, “Today was a tough, tough day. We made many mistakes, but we came up with a good solution for each mistake, so I think it was finally a really motivational, really interesting race.”
On spotting the breeze on the left to overtake Antigua & Barbuda to take the win, Federico added, “For the days that we've been training here it was one of the things the tactician was worried about, that a puff can come on this side of the course so we just gave it a try. We knew our rival was Antigua & Barbuda, so we wanted to beat him and our decision paid off.”
Group I, Race 4
The Group I teams lined up beautifully on the startline with El Salvador at the committee boat end and Cuba winning the pin as the breeze piped up to 15 knots.
The Cubans managed to cross the fleet as they tacked out to the right, judging the shifts to perfect to cross the fleet by over 100 metres as the fleet converged. At the windward mark it was tight behind the leaders as Mexico rounded just ahead of Bermuda with El Salvador a little further back.
Cuban helm Nelido Manso López powered the Pirates of the Caribbean team downwind, and his well-drilled crew rescued what could have been a disastrous spinnaker drop at the leeward gate, grabbing it out of the water before it started to drag, with Mexico leading the chasing pack as El Salvador struggled to get the jib sheeted in. The stronger winds make every manoeuvre that little bit harder, so minimising mistakes becomes critical.
Cuba rounded the final windward mark 24 seconds ahead of Mexico after judging the layline to absolute perfection, with Bermuda in third.
The final downwind leg saw the race turn on its head as Cuba lost ground on the left, while Mexico and Bermuda powered down the right. It was nip-and-tick as the teams crossed gybes into the line with Bermuda rolling Mexico at the last second to take the comeback win by just 3 seconds as Cuba came in just 10 seconds further back.
The result leaves the battle for Finals ticket in Group I finally poised going into Golden Sunday as Mexico are just a point ahead of Bermuda and Cuba are a mere 2 points further back. With double points on offer it’s all to play for, but El Salvador need everything to go their way to qualify for the Last Chance race.
SSL Team Bermuda’s Grinder Max Curtis said after the race, “It was an epic, epic downwind and the whole crew went 100% fast, fast, fast, the whole way down. I’ve probably never spun the handles that fast in my life! We were just wide open. There was great communication between us and the trimmer, the tactician and the skipper. We just banged every single manoeuvre to get us down to that finish.”
On how they overtook Cuba and their confidence going into the final day Max added, “They pretty much opened the door for us, so we just took the opportunity, banged our big maneouvres and it was a whole team effort. I fell out of the boat yesterday, and coming from that and still coming first, and then redoing it all over again today - the team’s just locked right in now and it’s all to play for in the next race. The whole team’s hungry right now and we’re going into tomorrow.”
What a day we have in store to conclude the Pan-American Qualifiers. The final three tickets will be awarded and the full forty nations set to contest the Copa do Mundo da Vela will be known. Be sure to tune in to the live broadcast on the @StarSailors YouTube channel to see how it all plays out!