DAY 2 Highlights - SAP 505 World Championship, San Francisco 2009

San Francisco, St. Francis Yacht Club, 16-30 August 2009.

This year the 505's was holding their World Championship regatta on San Francisco Bay. Everyone came expecting big breeze and that's exactly what they've found sailing on the Berkeley Circle in this warm up to the 2009 SAP 505 World Championship. Its clear that there's a lot of talent in this class and its going to take every bit of their skill to get the job done and hold up the trophy as World Champion for 2009.

[24 Aug 2009] - HOLT HOLDS ON, BUT THE 5O5 BATTLE JUST BEGINNING
by Rich Robert

Mike Martin and crew Jeff Nelson have won two of the three races in the 2009 SAP 505 World Championship, hosted by the St Francis Yacht Club, but were to spend a restless Monday night in 27th place before rejoining the fray Tuesday.

Restless for some of their rivals, that is.

The Newport Beach, California sailors beat the regatta leaders, Mike Holt and crew Carl Smit of Santa Cruz, by 48 seconds in Monday's only scheduled race. Now, after the first of two races scheduled Tuesday - the fourth race of nine through until Saturday - they'll discard the 99-point score they've carried like a thousand-pound bag of salt since failing to finish Sunday's second race after flipping their boat and busting their mast.

At the time they were running second to Holt and Smit, who went on to win the race despite their mast getting bent by the same puff that took out their adversaries. Both replaced their masts overnight, and conditions were lighter than Sunday's blowout at about 17 knots.

But Martin said, "We were both a little nervous about how our new rigs were gonna go, but they both went about the same as before"---that is, when he enjoyed a slight but significant edge in speed coming into the event after running away with the North American championship.

"We're in the hunt," Martin said.

http://www.mksebbe.synology.me/mks505...