Five Events Complete Bacardi Competition

Miami, FL (March 12, 2016) – That’s a wrap for the 2016 Bacardi Cup (Mar 7-12) and BACARDI Miami Sailing Week (Mar 10-12), with five events enjoying Bacardi hospitality and mostly strong winds.

Star – Germans Robert Stanjek and Frithjof Kleen (GER 8340) won the 89th Bacardi Cup Regatta, winning the final race of the series today to become the first German Star team to ever win the Bacardi Cup Regatta.

“It is always nice to win against Star Class heroes and champions like Torben Grael and Paul Cayard but it is very special for us to be the first German team in the history of this event to win,” Says Frithjof Kleen. “Yes, winning against the current World Champion Lars Grael and the local hero Augie Diaz is nice too. We are very proud to make history together for us and for our other German Star sailors.”

Star Results (Top 5 of 70; 6 races, 1 discard)
1. GER 8340 Robert Stanjek and Frithjof Kleen – 8 pts
2. ITA 8497 Diego Negri and Sergio Lambertenghi – 9 pts
3. USA 8465 Augie Diaz and Bruno Prada – 20 pts
4. USA 8506 Paul Cayard and Brian Fatih – 28 pts
5. BRA 8510 Torben Grael and Guilherme Almeida – 30 pts

J/70 – Julian Fernandez Neckelmann and his team Flojito Y Cooperando (MEX 384) reinforced their dominance in the J/70 Class today by winning the first race of the day, allowing them to skip the last race of the regatta. Fernandez Neckelmann and team won the event by nine points.

“We knew we had to put one boat between us and Calvi in the first race today to win the event without having to sail the last race,” explained Willem Van Waay. “But our strategy didn’t change much from yesterday. The focus is always on going fast and staying out of trouble, but today with the scores being so close it was really important that we stayed in front of Calvi so we went for a low density start and kept our eyes on them a bit more than we have all week.”

“Yeah, we were right next to them on the line close to the start and spooked them into setting up in a pretty crowded part of the starting line,” added Bill Hardesty.

“Fortunately for us they ended up having a bit of a rough start so we were able to sail our own race for the most part, sailing fast and conservative,” said Van Waay.

J/70 Results (Top 5 of 35; 8 races, 1 discard)
1. MEX 384 Julian Fernandez Neckelmann, Willem Van Waay, Bill Hardesty, Daniel Velaust – 12 pts
2. ITA 456 Carlo Alberini, Sergio Blosi, Branko Brcin, Karlo Hmelijak – 21 pts
3. USA 49 Peter Duncan, Tom Blackwell, Victor Diaz de Leon – 24 pts
4. USA 353 Robert Hughes, John Bowden, George Peet, Michael Buckley – 38 pts
5. USA 187 Joel Ronning, Richard Clark, Lucas Calabrese, Patrick Wilson – 42 pts

Viper 640/ VX One – On the Viper 640 and VX One course, two teams managed to run away with the championship title despite the dynamic conditions on the race course. Winners Lawrence Crispin (USA 243 – Viper 640) and Marcus Eagan (USA 177 – VX One) took the lead on day one of racing and continued to dominate the fleet throughout the weekend.

Crew member Andrew Eagen (USA 177 – VX One) said “the biggest challenge we thought we would face this week was sailing three up. This was the first time we have ever sailed with three people in the boat, but because it was so windy it definitely worked to our advantage. Having an extra set of eyes that could tell us what was going on out on the race course was a huge help.”

Viper 640 Results Top 5 of 29; 8 races, 1 discard)
1. USA 243 Lawrence Crispin, Luka Crispin, Hector Cisneros – 17 pts
2. USA 231 Tyler Moore, Jane Moore, Tim Fallon, Karen Fallon – 24 pts
3. GBR 209 Ian Nicholson, David Champan, David Hitchcock – 38 pts
4. USA 221 Thomas Loutrel, Brian Zimmermen, Jeff Gentzel – 39 pts
5. USA 247 Geoff Fargo, Tucker Atterbury, Geff Grange – 41 pts

VX One Results (Top 5 of 21; 8 races, 1 discard)
1. USA 177 Marcus Eagan, Andrew Eagan, Jen Wulff – 10 pts
2. USA 187 John Potter, David Guggenheim, Tara Berkinsky – 13 pts
3. USA 185 Phillip Norris, Christina Norris, Bruma Perez – 37 pts
4. USA 175 Ched Proctor, Michael Norris, David Lutian – 43 pts
5. USA 110 Rod Favela, Daniel Ponton, Ryan Vittmberga – 44 pts

A-Cat – Bailey White topped the fleet this week with all first place finishes. Although the wind was fairly consistent all weekend, Baily said the chop made racing pretty tough.

“Knowing how to handle the boat in the choppy water is difficult, you have to be able to change modes and know which one will work the best for the conditions you are sailing in. Because the conditions can change depending on what area of the course you were in you also have to know when to ‘shift gears’ from one mode to another.”

A-Cat Results (Top 5 of 11; 5 races, 1 discard)
1. USA 320 Bailey White – 4 pts
2. USA 350 Woody Cope – 8 pts
3. USA 135 Tracy Oliver – 12 pts
4. USA 99 Ben Hall – 16 pts
5. NL 268 Andrew Burdett – 22 pts

Details: BACARDI Miami Sailing Week – 89th BACARDI Cup – Event details – Facebook

Report by event media.