Gustavo draws “First Blood”…..

Tom Vernon rolls Gustavo Lima in the light wind first flight of Match Races yesterday..

The 5th Stavros Match Race event began yesterday in Cascais under an overcast sky and very little wind. However, there were smiles all round for the 4 winners of the day, Lars Hendricksen, Pieter Heerema, defending champion Pedro Andrade and 2014 winner Gustavo Lima.

Despite being “rolled” Gustavo maintains his inside overlap on Tom Vernon at bottom mark.

The 8 very competitive teams which include the current World Champion, Klaus Diederichs and the current European Champion Lars Hendriksen, all battled hard to win their opening matches in the first of 2 round robins.

Simon Fry raises the “Y” flag to protest Gustavo at the rounding…..  it was green flagged !

After racing the 8 teams with many friends an supporters enjoyed a “Happy Hour” at the Club Naval listening to some great Irish Music and drinking copious amounts of top quality Vodka sponsored by Dmitry Samokhin..

Dmitry Samokhin stands by just half of the superb vodka enjoyed by the Match Race Teams.

With a much better forecast today of clear skies and a steady 10 kt easterly wind the teams will be able to really get “stuck” into each other as the round robin format sees the races take no longer than 25 mins… There will be lots of action, flag waving, spills and thrills as these top sailors go “head to head”…

With a second “Happy Hour” this evening sponsored by Hendricks Gin, courtesy of Klaus Diederichs, and the Irish Boys back in full swing it should be another excellent day for these lucky teams in Cascais……

Higher, Faster, Longer…………      Stavros.