After two days of no racing, the Audi Star Class World Championship at Gaeta in Italy was underway again yesterday, and Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell scored their second race win of the event.

After a postponement waiting for the wind to fill in, racing took place in 5-15 kts of breeze. The fleet got underway under an individual recall and with no one turning back, some body was bound to be disappointed when they hit the shore later in the day.

Olympic gold medallist Iain Percy and crew Steve Mitchell got off to a good start and rounded the first mark in fifth place just behind Dutch sailors Mark Neeleman and Peter Van Nieherk and Colin Beashel and David Giles of Australia.

Percy and Mitchell had good pace downwind and by the bottom mark had moved up to second place just behind the Dutch team, whilst a great battle of many of the Star class sailing greats was going on behind.

In the end it was Neeleman/Van Nieherk who crossed the line first, followed by Percy/Mitchell, then Beashel/Giles and in fourth place Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira of Brazil.

Knowing that someone was over the line at the start meant there was an anxious wait ashore. The results went up and it was Neeleman/Van Nieherk that were scored as OCS (on course side), dropping them to 32nd place overall, whilst moving Percy and Mitchell up to take their second win of the championship.

A sixth place was enough for Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom of Sweden to maintain their lead over Grael and Ferreira. After scoring a fourth place in the race today Peter Bromby and Lee White of Bermuda have moved up to third place overall and Percy and Mitchell have jumped from tenth to fourth place.

Results

1st Fredrik Loof/Anders Ekstrom, SWE (3,2,6) 11 pts

2nd Torben Grael/Marcel Ferreira, BRA (7,4,3) 14 pts

3rd Peter Bromby/Lee White, BER (16,3,4) 23 pts

GBR

4, Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell (1,22,1) 24 pts

64, Ante Razmilovic/Edmund Peel (48,48,DNF) 199 pts