West Coast Report: Railey in Finn class by himself, but Casey joins the chase

Only the Finns sailed Wednesday, notching two races—both won by frontrunner Zach Railey—to stay one ahead of schedule with nine in the book and four days remaining. Their "lay day" was windless Monday. Wednesday was much better with 12-16 knots and harbor seals frolicking around the course.  
 
Following their planned lay day, all other classes were to resume Thursday with their final four days of racing through Sunday. All racing starts at noon, conditions permitting, except for the RS:X men's and women's sailboards at Long Beach, which start at 2 p.m.
 
Finn dinghy, Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Balboa: Railey, 23, of Clearwater, Fla., has a stranglehold on first place. Besides winning both races—that's six in a row and 7 of  9—he cashed in a bonus by tossing his worst result—a 12th on Day 2—to drop his net points from 19 to 9 and now leads Geoffrey Ewenson by 14 and Darrell Peck by 15. Andy Casey of nearby Fountain Valley, Calif., has made a 3-2-2 move over the last two days to reach fourth place. "Zach is just unbelievably fast," Casey said. "It feels good to go out and get beat just by him." Casey, 29, is originally from Clearwater, where he knew Railey since the latter was 15 and coached his younger sister Paige, who is campaigning for a Laser Radial berth in Newport, R.I. this week (currently second to Anna Tunnicliffe).  When Casey and Zach Railey outgrew Lasers,  they launched their Finn careers at US SAILING's Rolex Miami OCR in 2005. "I went to Europe this year and learned to sail in breeze," said Casey, 6-1 and 210. "With these 1.4-nautical mile [upwind] beats, it's killing your body, but to lock in and not think about how much it hurts makes a difference." —Jenn Lancaster reporting

 
The leaders:
 
Finn (42 boats; 9 of 16 races; 1 discard): 1. Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla.), 1-2-(12)-1-1-1-1-1-1, 9 points; 2. Geoffrey Ewenson (Annapolis), 2-3-(10)-4-3-2-2-4-3, 23; 3. Darrell Peck (Gresham, Ore.), (4)-4-1-3-2-3-4-3-4, 24.   
                
Tornado (6 boats; 8 of 16 races; 1 discard): 1. Tie between Robbie Daniel (Clearwater, Fla.)/Hunter Stunzi (Charleston, S.C.), 1-(2)-2-1-1-2-2-1, and, John Lovell (New Orleans, La.)/Charlie Ogletree (Kemah, Tex.), (2)-1-1-2-2-1-1-2, 10 points; 3. Colin Merrick (Portsmouth, R.I.)/John Sampson (Rumson, N.J.),  4-3-(5)-3-4-4-3-4, 25.   
 
Star (19 boats; 9 of 16 races; 1 discard): 1. Mark Mendelblatt (St. Petersburg, Fla.)/Magnus Liljedahl (Miami, Fla.), 3-3-1-(8)-1-3-6-2-5, 24 points; 2. George Szabo (San Diego)/Andrew Scott (Annapolis), 2-1-(1)-1-7-3-4-9-6-2, 34; 3. Andy Horton (Newport, R.I.)/Brad Nichol (Sunapee, N.H.), (18)-7-7-1-5-11-1-3-1, 36.
 
49er (13 boats; 13 of 24 races; 1 discard): 1. Tim Wadlow (Beverly, Mass.)/Chris Rast (San Diego), 1-2-1-1-3-1-(4)-3-3-1-1-1-1, 19 points; 2.  Dalton Bergan (Seattle, Wash.)/Zack Maxam (Costa Mesa, Calif.), 2-4-3-4-1-2-2-2-(14/OCS)-3-3-4-4, 34; 3. Morgan Larson (Capitola, Calif.)/Pete Spaulding (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), (14/OCS)-1-2-2-9-14/OCS-1-1-1-2-2-2-5, 42.
 
RS:X Men (6 boats; 8 of 16 races; 1 discard): 1. Tie between Ben Barger (Tampa, Fla.),
(8/RAF)-1-2-1-2-1-3-2, and Mike Gebhardt (Ft. Pierce, Fla.), 2-(3)-1-2-1-2-1-3, 12 points; 3. Robert Willis (Chicago, Ill.), 1-2-5-3-(6)-3-2-1, 17.   
                
RS:X Women (7 boats; 8 of 16 races; 1 discard): 1. Farrah Hall (Annapolis, Md.), (4)-1-4-1-3-3-1-1, 14 points; 2. Lisa Kremer (Worthington, Minn.), 1-2-2-4-4-1-(5)-2, 16; 3. Nancy  Rios (Miami, Fla.), 2-(4)-1-3-2-2-4-4, 18.  
                
470 Combined Fleet/Official scoring* (13 boats; 8 of 16 races; 1 discard): 1. Stuart McNay (Lincoln, Mass.)/Graham Biehl (San Diego), 2-2-2-2-1-2-(4)-1, 16 points; 2. Amanda Clark (Shelter Island, N.Y.)/Sarah Mergenthaler (New York, N.Y.), 4-3-1-(6)-3-3-2-4, 20; 3. Mikee Anderson-Mitterling (Coronado, Calif.)/David Hughes (San Diego), 5-1-(6)-3-4-4-1-5, 23.