2013 Atlantic Cup Day 4 Sunset Report

May 14, 2013

Barring anything catastrophic over the next hour or so it looks like #118 Bodacious Dream is going to win the first leg of the race!  They team of Dave Rearick and Matt Scharl have sailed a brilliant race and have done a masterful job of taming the challenging conditions.  At the time of this writing, they are just sailing under the Staten Island Expressway and the skyline of Manhattan is just starting to illuminate the sky.  A mere 2.5 miles astern lay the pair of #121 Lecoq Cuisine and #90 40 Degrees who have furiously battled over the last 12 hours. The have barely .5 miles of separation and I think that the podium finish order will be determined by whomever sails cleanest up the Hudson River. #121 Lecoq Cuisine has the slight edge but anything could happen over the course of the next hour in NYC’s crowed waterways.  It’s still too early to say who will come out on top for these two teams.  A few miles back from this pair are the team on #116 Icarus who seem to have caught a bad break last night and have been playing catch up since.  Despite sailing a great race thus far, it’s going to be tough for them to get into the top three.  Slightly further back from there the battle Between #106 Gryphon Solo and #54 Dragon is still playing out with #106 Gryphon holding a slight advantage but Dragon has clawed a few miles back.  Still further back is the team on #39 Pleaid Racing who never saw any advantage in the later stages of the eastern route(some expert…) but still are within striking distance of the pair ahead.  These teams will finish later this evening and the final standings may come down to which team deals with the traffic in the harbor at night.  Also, the breeze may soften more and that could open the door for a reshuffling of the trailing group.   Whatever does happen over the next few hours, it’s remarkable to see how close the entire fleet is after a very tricky and ever evolving 640+ miles.  Also, as Toronto fans learned last night, nothing is ever secure until the final gun so stay tuned until all boats have finished!