Leg 2 - Mielno - Ustka, 24.07.2008

The second, 37 miles' leg of Enea Baltic Sailing Cup 2008 from Mielno to Ustka has a very dramatic course. During a back-breaking beating there were yachts capsized, damaged sails, steering equipment failures and more broken masts. All problems were caused by very strong and gusty North-East wind, blowing with the speed over 20 knots.

The Piotr Chomicz / Waldemar Wieczorek crew was not able to organize a new mast to replace the one broken yesterday, so only 15 teams left Mielno. Just a few moments after the start the mainsail on the Tornado of Janusz Kacprzak / Marek Boroń tore. The team returned to the Mielno beach and did not finish the race.

The Robert Wilczyński / Robert Morawski crew sailing a F 18 HT had a very serious rigging failure which almost resulted in a broken mast. They also had to withdraw from today's race. A broken mast did not allow also the Sebastian Zarzeczański / Marcin Sołtysiak team sailing a F 18 HT as well to finish the race.

Smaller, but disabling from sailing failures caused that some crews has to land on the beach during the way and repair the damages in a hurry. After such an emergency repair catching up with competition was in principle impossible, but all of the teams continued to fight for the points in the general classification.

Against the strong NE wind and a number of failures resulted in huge differences on the finish line between the catamarans. The first one to arrive was the Piotr Kowalewski / Maciej Kłosowicz crew, who completed the second leg in 4h 47min 17secs. The next team Coen de Koning / Jeroen van Leeuwen crossed the finish line after 16 minutes. The last team to finish leg 2 was Arek Piernicki / Łukasz Janusz needed 6h and 26 minutes to complete the race. Two crews, who made it on their own to Ustka did not finish the leg, as they did not arrive before closing of the finish line. Ultimately 10 teams finished the second leg of the race.

The Dutch team Coen de Koning / Jeroen van Leeuwen defended their leaders' position after the rating calculation. Second place went to Piotr Kowalewski / Maciej Kłosowicz and third to Jacek Noetzel / Marcin Strzyżewski.

General classification after Leg 2:
1. Coen de Koning / Jeroen van Leeuwen - 2 pts
2. Piotr Kowalewski /Maciej Kłosowicz - 6 pts
3. Adam Skomski / Jakub Kopyłowicz - 6 pts
4. Jacek Noetzel / Marcin Strzyżewski - 6 pts
5. Piotr Cichocki /Ewa Górska - 14 pts
6. Mark Roempel / Michael Hilger - 16 pts
7. Seweryn Krajewski / Maciej Lunitz - 17 pts
8. Piotr Baryżewski / Michał Kraskowski - 18 pts
9. Heiner Wolfshoefer / Manuel Vaccari - 19 pts
10. Arek Piernicki / Łukasz Janusz - 21 pts
11. Robert Wilczynski / Tomasz Morawski - 23 pts
12. Sebastian Zarzeczański / Marcin Sołtysiak - 24 pts
13. Wojtek Kaliski / Tymoteusz Bendyk - 25 pts
14. Janusz Kacprzak / Marek Boroń - 31 pts
15. Jarosław Korzec / Bronisław Korzec - 32 pts
16. Piotr Chomicz / Waldemar Wieczorek - 34 pts

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