Day four of the United States Multihull Championship has paved the way for an all-out brawl for the final day of racing tomorrow; day five.  The top four teams have unbelievably close scores with a very small margin separating the top four.  They’re separated by 6 points all within reach of the lead currently held by Pitt and Shafer.

One team stands alone in not having once been relegated to B fleet thus far in the series – that’s the returning champion team of Casey and Williams.  However, that feat has not guaranteed them any comfort room atop the leader board as the two throwouts have allowed Pitt and Shafer, Tomko and Billings, and Watters and Burd to erase their mistakes and come back for a tough finale.  Casey and Williams now sit in third with 26 points one point behind Tomko with 25, and three behind Pitt with 23.  Watters and Burd, who had been sailing an excellent regatta and sitting in the number 1 position this morning, were protested in a barging situation in heat 9A and were disqualified from the heat giving them a DSQ and relegating them to a B-fleet race which they subsequently won.

Also notable, the young team from Puerto Rico, Francisco Figueroa and Gustava Pinto, scored impressive finishes today with a 2^nd and a 1^st in A-fleet which lifts them up to fifth place over Brandon Wallace by 2 points.  This is an incredible showing for a young pair of sailors that currently race Hobie 16s and have very little experience with Formula 18 spinnaker equipped catamarans.  The Marshack team continues to struggle unable to break back out of B-fleet for the second day but they won the last b-fleet race of the day which may enable them to hold on to a top 10 finish position.

Fun In the Sun, Inc, went above and beyond today by quickly finding a 12^th boat to use in the event after damage to the backup boat on Wednesday precluded it’s use in racing today.  Contractually, Fun In the Sun was only required to provide 11 boats but upon realizing we were going to have to finish two teams early if we had to retire a boat position from the event, worked late into the night and early in the morning to get a 12^th boat ready to race.  Everyone involved is grateful for all of their efforts and hard work in helping keep the championship on track.

We’re hoping to have an opportunity for the ground / beach crew to get out on the water with many of the local Gulport, FL residents who have been watching the event to experience, first hand, the final race of this year’s Championship that we’ve all been working so hard to complete.  It will undoubtedly come down to the last and final race but one way or another, the United States Multihull Champion will be named tomorrow.  Stay tuned!