While the breeze continued to lighten, the race committee decided there was enough left to run a third race, especially with a less-than-stellar forecast for Day 4. As the boats neared the line, the win dropped to its lowest point in the regatta, putting a premium on positioning and the speed build. Sled and Ran Racing battled hard for the pin and both came off the line downspeed and losing ground to boats further up the line. Among those with a strong start was the all-French team on Paprec and Provezza, led by tactician Tony Rey and helmsman Peter Holmberg. At the top mark, Paprec held a solid lead over Provezza, which in turn had a distinct advantage over a group fighting for third. It was perhaps the most competitive beat of the regatta with the lead changing hands often and rarely stretching to more than a boat length. Bronenosec, which struggled all leg to find a lane, has a masterful top quarter of the beat, moving up to third and rounding just inside of Interlodge. The leeward mark, however, proved the undoing for the Russian boat as they were whistled for a foul and forced to do a circle. Platoon likewise struggled around the mark, but Harm Müller-Spreer’s team rebounded nicely on the next beat to put themselves back into the top half of the fleet. Paprec hung on for its first win in a 52 SUPER SERIES races while Provezza moved to within a point of the lead by finishing second. Sled claimed third and Azzurra continued its consistent regatta with a fourth, which was good enough to put the Italian/Argentine team into a tie for first with Platoon, which finished fifth, with 3 races remaining. Bronenosec slid all the way to 11th in the race, while Quantum Racing finished a day to forget with a ninth.
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The Quantum Key West Race Week will take place from 16-20 January, with races starting at 11:00 every day. Watch all of the action LIVE at www.52SUPERSERIES.com or via the app.
