The stakes were high going into the third and final leg of the 2021 Signature Triple Crown, presented jointly by Chantilly Air and Los Sueños Resort and Marina. With $432,000 in cash prizes on the line, the teams needed to find the fish. Twenty eight of the 39 participating teams were fishing two tournaments in one; these teams participated in the 2020 Triple Crown and were here to complete the series, with their points going to determine the first, second, and third place teams for Leg 3 and the 2020 Series Champion. In addition, those same points for all 39 participating teams would determine the first, second, and third place teams for Leg 3 2021 and the 2021 Series Champion. Every fish counts. Outage finished the second Leg of the 2020 Series with 8,400 points, 400 points ahead of Tarheel in the running for the Series Championship. Team Galati was in third overall with 7,500 points. As far as the 2021 Series Championship, it was Fish Tank in first after Leg 2, with 9,700 points, followed by Team Galati with 9,100 points and then Grand Slam with 9,000 points.
You could feel the electricity on DAY 1, which began with a sailfish release by Salemwolf at 8:04 am. At 9:15 am Grand Slam moved to second overall with a quadruple sailfish release and by 10:00 am 5 marlin and 81 sails had been released, with Fish Tank still in the lead for the Series, followed by Grand Slam, and then Team Galati. Just 49 minutes later Team Galati was tied with Grand Slam for first and by 11:13 am they had moved ahead with a sail. Uno Mas was creeping up the leaderboard, moving from fifth overall to fourth with a sailfish release at 11:04 am and Dealer’s Choice was in the lead for the day by 11:28 am, when they released a marlin. Dealer’s Choice went on to release another marlin at 12:05 pm and went on to earn 1,500 points for the day by 2:00 pm which placed them second for the day, behind Team Galati with 1,700 points for the day, and in front of Eight Eights on time, also with 1,500 points. Pura Vida had a great showing on Day 1, moving to first for the day at 2:47 pm, but ending the day in second with 2,100 points, behind Team Galati who release two double header in the last 7 minutes of the day to earn 2,400 points and take the daily, and ahead of Dealer’s Choice with 1,900 points, who ended their day with a triple sailfish release at 3:51 pm. A total of 311 sails and 18 marlin were released on Day 1.
DAY 2 started off with a flurry of marlin, with 8 marlin hook ups and 9 marlin releases before 9:00 am. By 10:00 am Eight Eights was in first on time for Leg 3, with 2,700 points, over Team Galati in second, and Tarheel in third with 2,400 points. Team Galati earned 500 more points over the next two hours, for 3,200 points by noon to top the leaderboard, followed by Eight Eights with 3,000 points, and Tarheel rounding out the top three with 2,700 points. Half way through the event, the teams had released 489 billfish. Tarheel moved ahead with a double header at 1:36 pm and first place for Leg 3, which they kept as of the 2:00 pm update at which point they had amassed 3,700 points, followed by Team Galati also with 3,700 points and in second on time, over Eight Eights in third with 3,100 points. Grand Slam released a trio of sailfish at 1:59 pm moving them from twelfth to sixth for Leg 3, but placing them in third for the 2021 Series Championship. At the end of the day, Team Galati finished once again at the top of the leaderboard with 4,500 points, followed by Tarheel with 3,700 points, besting Eight Eights on time. A total of 350 sails and 22 marlin were released on Day 2, for a two-day total of 701 billfish.
Going in to DAY 3, Team Galati had already tallied 13,600 points over three legs and secured a pretty 1,700 point lead over Fish Tank for the 2021 Series Championship. Sea Fix started the day off with a sailfish release five minutes after lines in at 8:00 am and Uno Mas moved from sixth to fourth overall with a marlin release at 8:22 am. At 8:49 am Tarheel released a marlin, moving them to second for Leg 3 and by 10:00 am 62 sails and 8 marlin had been released for the day, tallying 771 billfish releases for the leg. By noon Team Galati was still in first with 5,700 points, followed by Eight Eights with 4,600 points, and then Tarheel with 4,300 points. Nsatiabill moved to second on time for Day 3 with a marlin release at 12:18 pm. By 2 pm Team Galati had earned an additional 400 points, increasing their three-day total to 6,100 points, followed by Eight Eights now with 4,700 points, and Tarheel with 4,600 points. The afternoon was all about the sailfish releases, including a quadruple release by Dragin Fly ta 3:35 pm. Grand Slam hooked up to a marlin only five minutes before lines out, releasing it exactly at 4:00 pm and finishing seventh for Leg 3 and second for the Series. No surprise here…Team Galati finished first for Leg 3, with a final count of 54 sails and 2 marlin for 6,400 points, followed by Eight Eights with a three-day total of 25 sails and 5 marlin for 5,000 points, and Dragin Fly completed the top three with 38 sails, 2 marlin for 4,800 points.
Each day the tournament would add the final scores for that day to the tally for the third leg of the 2020 Series, as well as the tally for the 2020 Series Championship. After Day 1 Team Galati was in first for the Leg with their 2,400 points and was already 100 points ahead of Outage in the Series Championship. After Day 2 they pulled ahead even further, with 12,000 points, over Tarheel in second with 11,700 points, followed by Outage in third with 10,700 points. By the end of the tournament on Day 3, Team Galati earned 6,400 points for the Leg and finished first over Dragin Fly in second with 4,800 points, and Tarheel finished third with 4,700 points. Team Galati amassed a total of 13,900 points for the 2020 Signature Triple Crown, outdoing Tarheel’s 12,700 points, and Outage’s 12,000 points. |
