With Round Robin 1 and the first two flights of Round Robin 2 complete, Pacé leads the event with a 10-2 record.

"It’s still very early," said a wary Pacé, the slated helmsman of potential America’s Cup syndicate Team France. " There are eight more flights to sail before the semifinals. Anything can happen."

Sweden’s Magnus Holmberg lies second with a 9-3 record, the same as Gilmour, the Day 1 leader. The two have split their round-robin matches, but Holmberg owns the tiebreaker due to his victory in Round 2 (Flight 13 overall).

Denmark’s Jes Gram-Hansen is fourth with an 8-3 record, and followed by New Zealander Gavin Brady of the Oracle BMW Racing syndicate for the America’s Cup, at 7-5.

Frenchman Mathieu Richard, the world No. 2-ranked match-race skipper, is sixth with a 6-5 record. Team New Zealand’s Kelvin Harrap is 5-7, and owns the tiebreaker for seventh over Sweden’s Mattias Rahm, also at 5-7.

Finland’s Staffan Lindberg, who returned to racing a day after undergoing a procedure to repair a broken facial bone, moved up to ninth with a 3-9 record, followed by Croatians Frano Brate, 2-10, and Mate Arapov, 1-11.

Today’s racing at the 18th annual regatta was held in lighter winds than Day 1. While the Race Committee, led by Alen Kustic and Tonko Petesic, rolled off eight flights and 40 matches yesterday, today they were able to complete just five flights and 25 matches.

Racing is scheduled to continue tomorrow with an attention signal slated for 10:50 a.m.


ACI HTmobile Cup Standings (After 13 of 22 scheduled flights)

1. Bertrand Pacé/FRA, Team France 10-2
2. Magnus Holmberg/SWE, SeaLife Rangers 9-3
3. Peter Gilmour/AUS, Pizza-La Sailing Team 9-3
4. Jes Gram-Hansen/DEN, Team Denmark 8-3
5. Gavin Brady/NZL, Oracle BMW Racing 7-5
6. Mathieu Richard/FRA 6-5
7. Kelvin Harrap/NZL, Team New Zealand 5-7
8. Mattias Rahm/SWE, Team Stena Bulk 5-7
9. Staffan Lindberg/SWE 1-9
10. Frano Brate/CRO 2-8
11. Mate Arapov/CRO 1-9

Round Robin One - Results (Flights 9 to 11)

Flight 9 : Gavin Brady def. Kelvin Harrap - Bertrand Pacé def. Mate Arapov - Magnus Holmberg def. Mathieu Richard - Staffan Lindberg def. Mattias Rahm - Jes Gram-Hansen def. Peter Gilmour

Flight 10 : Bertrand Pacé def. Gavin Brady - Kelvin Harrap def. Frano Brate - Mattias Rahm def. Magnus Holmberg - Peter Gilmour def. Mathieu Richard - Jes Gram-Hansen def. Staffan Lindberg (FIN)

Flight 11: Bertrand Pacé def. Frano Brate - Kelvin Harrap def. Mate Arapov - Mattias Rahm def. Peter Gilmour - Magnus Holmberg def. Jes Gram-Hansen - Mathieu Richard def. Staffan Lindberg

Round Robin two - Results (Flights 12 & 13)

Flight 12 : Mathieu Richard def. Mattias Rahm - Bertrand Pacé def. Kelvin Harrap - Staffan Lindberg def. Frano Brate - Peter Gilmour def. Gavin Brady - Magnus Holmberg def. Mate Arapov

Flight 13 : Kelvin Harrap def. Mattias Rahm - Jes Gram-Hansen def.Bertrand Pacé - Gavin Brady def. Frano Brate - Magnus Holmberg def. Peter Gilmour - Staffan Lindberg def. Mate Arapov

Gilmour and crew Rod Dawson (NZL), Mike Mottl (AUS), Kazuhiko Sofuku (JPN) and Yasuhiro Yaji (JPN) – the runaway leaders of the Swedish Match Tour Championship Leaderboard – won all of their races today enroute to a 7-0 record after the first eight flights of the 18th annual event off Split Harbor.

After a 68-minute postponement this morning due to light winds, the race committee took an aggressive approach to conducting racing. The
southwesterly breeze started at 6 knots for Flight 1, but by Flight 2 it had increased to 10 knots.

The wind would gust up to 16 knots throughout the afternoon, and the race committee ran eight flights, 40 matches overall in a bit more than seven hours, over the standard windward/ leeward, twice-around course.

"I think it was very clever of them to get that much racing in," said Gilmour. "I've been at these events where they knock off at 5:00 and then there's nothing later in the week."

ACI HTmobile Cup Standings (After eight of 22 scheduled flights)

1. Peter Gilmour (AUS), 7-0
2. Bertrand Pacé (FRA, Team France), 6-1
3. Magnus Holmberg (SWE), 5-2
= Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN), 5-2
5. Gavin Brady (NZL, Oracle BMW Racing), 5-3
6. Mathieu Richard (FRA), 4-3
7. Mattias Rahm (SWE), 3-4
8. Kelvin Harrap (NZL, Team New Zealand), 2-5
9. Frano Brate (CRO), 2-6
10. Mate Arapov (CRO), 1-7
11. Staffan Lindberg (SWE), 0-7


Round Robin One - Results (Flight 1 to 8)

Flight 1 : Mathieu Richard def. Mattias Rahm - Bertrand Pacé def. Kelvin Harrap - Frano Brate def. Staffan Lindberg - Peter Gilmour def. Gavin Brady - Magnus Holmberg def. Mate Arapov

Flight 2 : Mattias Rahm def. Kelvin Harrap - Bertrand Pacé def. Jes Gram-Hansen - Gavin Brady def. Frano Brate - Peter Gilmour def. Magnus Holmberg - Mate Arapov (CRO) def. Staffan Lindberg (FIN)

Flight 3 : Kelvin Harrap def. Jes Gram-Hansen - Bertrand Pacé def. Mathieu Richard - Magnus Holmberg def. Frano Brate - Gavin Brady def. Staffan Lindberg - Peter Gilmour def. Mate Arapov

Flight 4 : Jes Gram-Hansen def. Mattias Rahm - Mathieu Richard def. Kelvin Harrap - Magnus Holmberg def. Gavin Brady - Frano Brate def. Mate Arapov - Peter Gilmour def. Staffan Lindberg

Flight 5 : Bertrand Pacé def. Mattias Rahm - Jes Gram-Hansen def. Mathieu Richard - Gavin Brady def. Mate Arapov - Peter Gilmour def. Frano Brate - Magnus Holmberg def. Staffan Lindberg (FIN)

Flight 6 : Magnus Holmberg def. Kelvin Harrap - Peter Gilmour def. Bertrand Pacé - Jes Gram-Hansen def. Frano Brate - Mattias Rahm def. Mate Arapov - Gavin Brady def. Mathieu Richard

Flight 7 : Kelvin Harrap def. Staffan Lindberg - Bertrand Pacé def. Magnus Holmberg - Jes Gram-Hansen def. Mate Arapov - Mathieu Richard def. Frano Brate - Gavin Brady def. Mattias Rahm

Flight 8 : Bertrand Pacédef. Staffan Lindberg- Peter Gilmour def. Kelvin Harrap - Mathieu Richard def. Mate Arapov - Jes Gram-Hansen def. Gavin Brady - Mattias Rahm def. Frano Brate

The organizing authorities are the Yacht Club Croatia – Opatija and the Adriatic Croatia International Club of Opatija. This year marks the 18th edition of the event, but the list of winners is just 10 names long. Five skippers have won it a total of 12 times.

The lineup features Denmark’s Jes Gram-Hansen, (third overall on last year’s Tour), Team New Zealand’s Kelvin Harrap (looking to add a top finish to his pair of fifths on the Tour), and Italian Paolo Cian (who is lined up with the fledgling Italian Challenge for America’s Cup 2007).

France will be well represented by Bertrand Pacé (the 2000 Swedish Match Tour champion), and Mathieu Richard (fourth at last year’s match-racing world championship).

Sweden’s Mattias Rahm (eighth at the Congressional Cup) and Finland’s Staffan Lindberg (eighth at the Nippon Cup last November) also will be on hand.

A pair of Croatians, Franco Brate and Mate Arapov, plan to defend the locals’ honor against the foreigners.