Day three of the Goslings Viper 640 World Championship is what the sailors called “moving day.” The Catalina High was predicted to suck the air out of the race course mid-afternoon and, after two good races in 8-10 knots, the High’s effect was felt, and the third race was finished in very light conditions.
With two days and seven races under their belts, the sailors were going to either move up or down in the standings. For Marcus & Andrew Eagan and Jackson Benvenutti as well as Geoff Ewenson, Ryan Cox, and Jon Ziskind, it was moving up. After two days wearing the “yellow jersey,” local sailors Jay Golison, Steve Flam, and Eric Doyle fell. Eagan’s CAJUN UNDERWRITING moved from second to first winning all three of the day’s races , Ewenson’s EVIL HISS moved up into the second position with finished of 2-3-2 as Golison, who had to retire from Race 9 finished with a 3-RET-6 dropped into third.
CAJUN UNDERWRITING won all three races by “horizon jobs,” putting light years between them and the next boats. When asked what magic they pulled out of their hats today, Jackson Benvenutti noted, “We sail in conditions like this all the time on Lake Pontchartrain – light air and chop. We focused on getting a good lane off the start so we could put our bow down and go, and remaining as still as possible as we trimmed the sails in the light air.” Congratulations to the Eagan Brothers and Jackson.
It should also be noted that Goslings has been a major driver in the off-the-water success of this event. Rinear Coulter, Goslings Brand Events Director, has been on-site every night and out on the water watching, too. Rinear’s take on the Worlds is, “This Worlds Championship has been great for Goslings. We’ve been sampling a lot of our rum products—including sampling our Old Rum this afternoon—and I believe we have made Goslings ambassadors out or all the Viper sailors. The Goslings / Viper 640 relationship continues to get stronger and I look forward to being part of future Viper events.”
The final day of racing is tomorrow, Saturday, August 24, with 10 races in the books and a maximum four more to be sailed tomorrow.
Photos: Sharon Green UltimateSailing.com #UltimateSailing
Results
