Only three points separated the top three boats in the Rolex racing fleet at the end of Saturday's racing. After three races, and with one or two more races on Sunday, Marriott Frenchman's Reef with eight points led Crash Test Dummies (10) and Mermaid II (11). A first place finish is awarded one point, second place, two points as the fleet positions are corrected by handicap.
Saturday's weather conditions served up a continual challenge to the racing boats as squalls moved over and by the racing area, changing wind strength and direction during the races.
The start of the six spinnaker racing classes were spread over about 30 minutes. The spread of the boats around the race course when the squalls passed over had and effect on the class scores in fleet. Some classes are going upwind, where the strong winds in squalls are a slight detriment, and some classes are zooming downwind with extra speed.
In the second race on Saturday the big boats of class A took the top five fleet positions pushing the defending champion Marriott Frenchman's Reef in class C back to sixth and setting up the Sunday racing showdown.
In the race for class wins the leaders going into Sunday's final round are Crash Test Dummies leads class A, Umakua class B, Frenchman's Reef class C, Twisted Lizard class D, Sorceress class E, Claims Paid class F, Heineken PR class G, Kracker Jack class H, Calvin class I, and Pipedream class J. The Rolex watches are given out for winning class not winning overall.
