Tony Langley’s Gladiator crew won Race 3 for the 52 SUPER SERIES at Quantum Key West Race Week leading from the first leeward gate. Their victory is the first race win for Langley’s team since July last year in Porto Cervo and the first with Ed Baird as tactician.
The third race of the regatta followed much the same pattern as the first two, raced yesterday. With the steep Key West chop kicked up by the brisk 15-16kts breeze adding to the fun downwind and requiring accurate driving upwind, Interlodge started briskly off the pin end of the line, with Ian Walker steering and Andy Horton calling tactics. The showed excellent speed to the left of the first and were able to lead Gladiator and Azzurra around the top mark. Gladiator hung further to the right side looking downwind and eased through to lead by the first gate from Provezza who also had a blistering first run.
Interlodge had to stop during the second upwind with a technical issue and dropped way down the fleet. Azzurra and Bronenosec both tore their kites on the last run. Azzurra were challenging for second when they took time to replace their damaged sail but held on to third, while Bronenosec lost out to the hard charging Quantum Racing who finished third.
With two wins and a sixth place Platoon, still lead the regatta by three points from Azzurra, with Quantum Racing three more points behind in third.
For full results, visit: http://bit.ly/2j0huOt
To watch the race again, visit http://bit.ly/2e6o3tR.
The Quantum Key West Race Week will take place from 16-20 January, with races starting at 11:00 every day. Track the boats via state-of-the-art Virtual Eye at www.52SUPERSERIES.com/LIVE or via the app.
