San Diego Sailors in Title Chase

Only one point separates David Houser of the Coronado Yacht Club, Mike Hare of Houston and Brett Davis of St. Petersburg, Fla., going into today’s final race of the single-handed Laser class in the U.S. Yacht Racing Union/Rolex National Junior Championships at Newport Beach.

Davis started slowly in the five-day, 10-race series but won four consecutive races before placing second in the ninth race Thursday. With low score winning, Hare is now the leader with 22 points to 22 3/4 for Houser and 23 for Davis.

First place is worth three-quarters of a point, and subsequent places equate to their positions.

Bill Hardesty of the Mission Bay Yacht Club, with crewman Paul Ware, slipped to fourth--their worst finish all week--in the first of two Flying Junior races but won the second to retain first overall with two races remaining today.

Hardesty is 3 1/2 points ahead of second-place Jesse Andrews of the American Yacht Club in Rye, N.Y. Third place is 15 1/2 points behind Andrews.

Scott Elting of Houston took over the lead in the Etchells 22 fleet when Jory Twist of the host Newport Harbor Yacht Club was disqualified for a premature start in Thursday’s first race. Manning Montagnet of Pass Christian YC in Mississippi also started early but won the next race, with Twist second.

Twist dropped to third overall, four points behind Elting, but still has a chance to win with his performance in today’s two races under the scoring system.

The fleets enjoyed their strongest wind conditions of the week, 10 to 15 knots.

Class winners here will be members of the U.S. junior national team.