Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau (FRA) extended their lead at the top of the Star World Championship with a second place on day four of the Star World Championships, behind the Brazilian legends of Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira. The Brazilians have won their second race to regain second overall.

The wind was lighter than previous days at about 10-11 knots and very unstable, leading to some large difficult shifts upwind and down. Leading around the top mark was the second French team of Presti/Saliou by a good distance and they held the lead until the leeward gate, second round the top and bottom was Grael/Ferrerira (BRA). Behind places were changing rapidly with the teams making the biggest gains including Rohart who got to third, and us (Skandia GBR) who came from 18th at the top to seventh at the bottom.

The next beat saw little change in the top three except that Grael took the lead with Rohart second and Presti third, and this remained until the finish, and these three were extended from the rest of the fleet. We had made it up to fifth by the last leeward mark, but then managed to hit the mark and had to do a penalty. This put us behind a group that we had managed to keep behind us, and pushed us down eight places to thirteen by the finish.

Overall Rohart/Rambeau lead with 12pts, Grael/Ferreira second with 16pts and Loof/Ekstrom third with 18pts. The Championship now has a lay day, but has all to play for in the last two races.

Results (race 4)

1 BRA 8210 GRAEL/FERREIRA

2 FRA 8107 ROHART/RAMBEAU

3 FRA 7879 PRESTI/SALIOU

4 ARG 7213 LADANDEIRA/THOMPSON

5 BRA 8127 SCHEIDT/PRADA

6 SWE 8191 LOOF/EKSTROM

7 BRA 8109 FICKER/JORDAO

8 AUS 7836 MURRAY/PALFREY

9 POR 8145 DOMINGOS/SANTOS

10 ESP 7581 BERMUDEZ/DOMINGO