Despite the shifty light breeze on Biscayne Bay in Miami yesterday, the third race of the Star Bacardi Cup was won with a long lead by the Portuguese duo of Alfonso Domingos and crew Bernardo Santos. With half the races completed, they are now in first place overall.

Second place went to Austrians Hans Spitzauer and crew Andreas Hanakamp, followed by Americans George Szabo and crew Mark Staube in third place. Most of the leaders were caught in the back of the pack with no wind.

The Austrians were in ninth position after the first and second marks and, as crew Hanakamp put it: “We were on a good tack after rounding the second mark and just kept going. We had more luck today.”

It was a big disappointment for six-time Bacardi Cup Champion Mark Reynolds who was among the four teams disqualified for an early start after waiting more than an hour to start the race. The Irish team of Maxwell Treacy and crew Anthony Shanks were also disqualified for an early start for the second day in a row, thus ending the race for them.

Americans Howie Shiebler and crew Will Stout finished in fourth place and move up to fourth place overall behind Bermudans Peter Bromby and crew Lee White who finished in 13th place and are now third overall.

Canadian Olympian Ross Macdonald and crew Mike Wolfs finished in fifth place and move up to second overall. Macdonald said: “It was a tough race today with incredibly shifty wind, so shifty that nothing was for certain. We were extremely conservative as anything could get thrown at you and holding to a fifth place through the race was the best part of the day.”

Marc Pickel the skipper of the German team best expressed the day. “It was very shifty wind and basically we didn’t get it right. We went right up the middle and passed a few boats and then got stuck there,” he said. Pickel and crew Ingo Borkowski placed 61st today.

Results race three

1. Afonso Domingos/Bernardo Santos (Portugal)

2. Hans Spitzauer/Andreas Hanakamp (Austria)

3. George Szabo/Mark Staube (USA)

4. Howie Shiebler/Will Stout (USA)

5. Ross Macdonald/Mike Wolfs (Canada)

6. Peter Wyss/Urs Joss (Switzerland)

7. Rohan Lord/Andrew Taylor (New Zealand)

8. Andy Lovell/Magnus Liljedahl (USA)

9. Bill Allen/Lichter (USA)

10. Steven Kelly/William Holowesko (Bahamas)

Overall

1. Afonso Domingos//Bernardo Santos (Portugal), 7-7-1,15pts

2. Ross Macdonald/Mike Wolfs (Canada), 3-13-5,21 pts

3. Peter Bromby/Lee White (Bermuda), 18-1-13,32 pts

4. Howie Shiebler/Will Stout (USA), 26-5-4,35 pts

5. Flavio Marazzi/Enrico De Maria (Switzerland), 9-4-24,37 pts

6. Colin Beashel/David Giles (Australia), 15-10-16,41 pts

7. Marko Dahlberg/Ville Kurki (Finland), 32-6-19,57 pts

8. Andy Lovell/Magnus Liljedahl (USA),10-42-8, 60 pts

9. Hans Spitzauer/Andreas Hanakamp (Austria), 8-51-2,61 pts

10. John Dane III/Henry Sprague (USA), 6-27-31,64 pts

10. equal Jali Makila/Erkki Heinonen (Finland), 29-17-18,64 pts