| KEY BISCAYNE, FL. USA-(5-3-2003) Two Californian teams took first and third place in race three of the regatta yesterday. The team of Peter Vessella and crew Brian Fatih of Burlingame was followed by second place finisher Augie Diaz and crew Mark Strube who move to 12th overall.
George Szabo and crew Christian Finnsgard of San Diego made a strong third place finish putting them in second place overall. `We got lucky today; we sailed the forecast and it worked well for us,` he said.
`It's hard to be consistent out there - the breeze has to fall in place to win a race and it sure did today,` said Vessella who was surprised by his win. `In the final downwind run, we jibed early and that was a huge move that got me past 15 boats on the way to the finish line,` he explained.
For British team Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell it was another story. `I went the wrong way on every run; we made the wrong calls and it's a shame that we finished badly.` You simply can't gamble like that with this field of people like Bromby and Reynolds who are so consistent,` said Percy, who slips to third place overall with his 23rd place finish today.
The story of the day was six-time Bacardi Cup champion Vince Brun and crew Brian Terhaar of San Diego who caught some incredible breezes and took a sizeable lead in the third turn finishing the race in first place. Brun was black flagged for an early start the second day in a row and his first-place finish today will not count.
`I'm just getting antsy as I get older; I don't know what happened,` said Brun. `It's such a shame that I can't keep the results.`
Austalians Ian Walker and crew Nick Williams' fifth place finish today and yesterday moves them into seventh overall. Walker said he was very fortunate to ride some strong winds on the right side. `It's always tough and not getting any easier out there, but there were no major accidents and people are playing by the rules,` he said.
2001 Bacardi Cup winner Peter Bromby of Bermuda moves into first place overall with a fourth place finish today. He held in the top 20 around the first two turns and aggressively pulled ahead in turn three passing Ireland's Rod Davis and Sweden's Fredrik Loof.
Of the favourites, only Bromby and Presti crossed the finish line in the top 10 on the third day.
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