McDougall drops to fifth in Moth Worlds

Andrew "Amac" McDougall’s nine point lead evaporated today in the difficult patchy Dubai breeze of the third day of the PUMA International Moth World Championship.

The first race of the day, race five, was a carbon copy of the final race yesterday, with US Laser sailor Brad Funk scoring a bullet.  European Moth Champ Arnaud Psarofaghis (SUI) scored a second on the same race, and at the end of the day Psarofaghis moved into third place.  

"Today I lost a few positions I shouldn't have, but overall I was going pretty fast in some difficult conditions," the Swiss racer said.  Simon Payne captured third in the race. Seattle, USA skiff sailor Dalton Bergan pulled off the move of the regatta at the exciting start of race six, when he port-tacked the entire fleet – a sailor’s dream at a World Championship.  The manuver payed off and guaranteed victory for Bergan.  

Australian Scott Babbage grabbed second place, with Funk again scoring big with a third. Payne continued his strong performance with a fourth and 2009 World Champ Bora Gulari rounded out the top five. The last race of the day started in a lighter and dying breeze, with Psarofaghis edging out Brad Funk for the race win after Funk broke his boom vang. Funk also lost a sail control called a camber inducer, greatly reducing the power in his rig.  

The gear failure cost Brad one point, leaving his just two points from race leader Payne, whose consistency has proved his biggest advantage.  "I was good but not great today, not quite as fast as yesterday just before I broke my mast, but then the conditions weren't quite the same so you have to take that into account," explained Payne. 

McDougall is now in fifth place on 34 points (1,1,11,12,13,8,11), 16 points behind the leader. Other Australians are Scott Babbage in seventh on 37 (8,4,9,5,10,2,9), Rob Gough in 12th on 67 (11,18,12,12,12,12,8), James Cole in 20th on 110 (21,6,21,20,25,21,21) and Ben Crocker in 30th on 168 (32,27,25,29,28,28,31).Tomorrow is a lay day for the fleet.