Florida Yacht Club; Jacksonville, Florida - Bora Gulari at the helm for Chuck Holzman on 'Flyer' played his trumph card today as they took the Melges 24 King's Day Atlantic Coast Championship title by one point. "This is great," said Holzman. "We come down here every year and we have such a great time, we really enjoy it. The race committee had a very challenging job this year. I'm not sure what was more challenging — being on the committee boat or being one of the race boats, but this was tough." Holzman attributed his entire crew in addition to Gulari — George Peet, Wally Cross and Todd Jones for their success this weekend.Day two of the 2007 King's Day Regatta Melges 24 Atlantic Coast Championship was bound to be a showdown. Going into the day, Bill Hardesty at the helm for Dave Ford on 'Lightwave Nano' had the overall lead with a 3-2 first day score over Brian Porter on 'Full Throttle's' 6-1 finish. And to no surprise, Gulari\Holzman were seated in third. The teams headed out to the course bright and early on Sunday morning under once again, sunny skies and a light breeze. Just when everyone thought it was just enough to get things going on time, the air bottomed out and the fleet went into postponement.
Race one finally got underway around midday with a great start. As if the deep talent in this fleet wasn't enough to deal with, it was played a great game of breeze and current on the first upwind beat. First to the mark was Cary Siegler on 'Cre843' with Traverse City's Mike Down on 'Flying Toaster' hot on his heels. As the fleet slowly progressed around the mark, the situation looked grim for the overnight leaders. Hardesty and Gulari/Holzman were furthest front, while Porter and Mark Ivey driving for David Ford on 'Lightwave Micro' struggled desperately in the disappearing air. Downwind the overnight leaders picked up some positions. As the fleet headed back-upwind, with a last minute shortened course, Dow took the win in stride. It was Joe Blouin on 'Wicked Witch' the launched a surprise attack taking second place, Siegler settled for third. Gulari/Holzman was fifth. - Joy DuniganTOP TEN RESULTS (Overall) 01.) Bora Gulari/Chuck Holzman; Flyer 02.) Bill Hardesty/David Ford; Lightwave Nano 03.) Terry Hutchinson; Quantum Racing 04.) Mike Dow; Flying Toaster05.) Mark Ivey/David Ford; Lightwave Micro 06.) Kelly Gough/Shawn Grisham; Bulls-Eye (c) 07.) Brian Porter; Full Throttle 08.) Alan Field; WTF 09.) Geoffery Pierini; Gazoo 10.) Steve Kopf; Blur
