Saturday, November 08, 2008 - Racing conditions couldn’t have been much better for day two of the 2008 ISAF Nations Cup Regional Final sponsored by Team One Newport, with air temperatures in the high 60’s, clear skies and 8-12 knots of breeze from the west. Going into the day, Dave Perry of the USA led the combined round robin with 8 points, trailed by Paula Lewin of Bermuda and Anna Tunnicliffe of the USA, both with 6 points.

But yesterday’s tight races turned into today’s upsets, with both Lewin and Tunnicliffe defeating Perry in the second round-robin. The top three boats entered the third round-robin tied with 8 points each. Tunnicliffe was able to take another win off of Perry, but Lewin defeated Tunnicliffe, and Taylor Canfield of the USVI won a close match against Lewin. That brought the scores to 12 points for Tunnicliffe and Perry, with Tunnicliffe winning the tie-breaker, and 11 points for Lewin.

The semi-finals featured Lewin and Canada’s Lisa Ross on the Women’s side and Canfield and Jeremy Lucas of Canada in the Open division. Canfield defeated Lucas in 2 straight matches to move on to the finals against Perry. Lewin and Ross split matches and will race again tomorrow to determine who moves on to race Tunnicliffe in the finals.

The schedule has been changed to a final knockout round to 3 points within each of the divisions. The winner in each division will qualify for the ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final in Porto Alegre, Brazil from 23-28 March 2009. Results can be found at www.cofc.edu/sailing/nationscup

THE ISAF NATIONS CUP: The ISAF Nations Cup is a global competition to find the world’s top match racing nations in both open and women’s events and to develop match racing infrastructure around the world. The Nations Cup encompasses a series of eight Regional Finals from September-December 2008, from which the top team will qualify for the ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final, taking place in Porto Alegre, Brazil from 23-28 March 2009. The 2008 North American/Caribbean Regional Final is being hosted by the Carolina Yacht Club and the College of Charleston on November 6-9, 2008. Racing is being held the College of Charleston’s fleet of J-22s and sailed out of the Carolina Yacht Club. Thank you to our title sponsor, Team One Newport - www.team1newport.com .