Champions named at Miami Sailing Week

Miami, FL (March 11, 2017) – The 90th Bacardi Cup and the 8th BACARDI® Miami Sailing Week experienced more light air for the final day of racing.

Star – The breeze build up shortly before 1:00pm today with 7 knots from NNE and the RC got the boats on the starting line with the black flag up. Unfortunately too many boats were over and PRO was forced to call a general recall that caused an automatic abandon as per SI rule 6.1 that stated no racing after 13:00. That solidified the standings with Mark Mendelblatt / Magnus Liljedahl as the winners.

The dynamic duo automatically became the winners ahead of Xavier Rohart / Pierre Alexis PONSOT (FRA8237) and of George Szabo / Eduardo Natucci (USA 8320) who were today’s light air favorite.

“The breezed filled in nicely and we were all eager to start,” said Mark Mendelblatt. “We did not have a great start and we were happy for the recall, but soon after we realized that the cutoff time arrived. I did the Bacardi Cup ten times and Miami is my town. I’m extremely happy to have won this prestigious regatta and would like to thank Bacardi, it’s great!”

Magnus Liljedahl was also very happy and commented: “Would have been nicer to win it after today’s race, but I’ll take the win… a win is a win! I’m feeling better than earlier this week, Star sailing is a good workout, but most of all I’m happy to go out there and learn every time.”

Mark Mendelblatt is now a 3-time winner (2005, 2013, 2017) and Magnus Liljedahl has won it 6 times as crew (1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2009, 2017).

Top 5 Overall:
1. USA8481 Mark Mendelblatt and Magnus Liljedahl – 13 pts
2. FRA 8237 Xavier Rohart and Pierre Alexis Ponsot – 15 pts
3. USA 8320 George Szabo and Eduardo Natucci – 18 pts
4. BRA 8474 Lars Grael and Samuel Goncalves – 20 pts
5. USA 8509 Augie Diaz / Bruno Prada – 23 pts

J/70 – The J/70‘s were the largest class of Bacardi Miami Sailing Week with 36 boats on the starting line. Seven nations were represented with boats coming from Europe and the America’s. Competition was very tight among the top three boats, exchanging the overall lead often. The fleet completed 7 races and the following teams finished in the top five spots:

Top 5 Overall:
1. USA 49 Peter Duncan on Relative Obscurity – 22 pts
2. USA 901 John & Molly Baxter on Team Vineyard Vines – 28 pts
3. USA 26 Bruce Golison on Midlife Crisis – 29 pts
4. USA 246 Martin Kullman on New Wave – 32 pts
5. USA 96 Brian Keane on Savasana – 41 pts

Viper 640/ VX One/VX Evo – Circle Alpha hosted the Viper 640, the VX One and the VX Evo and it was the circle closest to the Brickell area with a spectacular view of downtown, the port and Key Biscayne. It was a busy area with 44 boats crossing each other and rounding buoys left and right. Competition was always close for the top boats of each class, and after 9 races the results are as follows:

Viper 640 Top 5 Overall:
1. USA 248 Geoff Ewenson on Terminally Pretty– 21 pts
2. USA 258 John Dane III on Colonel Rebel – 29 pts
3. CAN 235 William Abbott on Jackpot – 35 pts
4. USA 247 Geoff Fargo on Boomslang – 36 pts
5. GBR 260 Lawrence Crispin on Adder Girl – 55

VX One Top 5 Overall:
1. USA 124 Christopher Alexander on Isabelita Con Queso – 16 pts
2. USA 187 John Potter on Vx One – 24 pts
3. USA 178 Tim Pitts on Cruzan Rhode – 25 pts
4. USA 175 Jeff Eiber on USA 175 – 41 pts
5. USA 188 Sam Padnos on TWD – 46 pts

VX Evo Top 5 Overall:
1. NZL 004 Hayden Bennett on Vx Racing – 11 pts
2. USA 013 Brian Bennett on Bennett Racing – 12 pts
3. USA 011 Jim Myers on Satisfaction – 22 pts
4. USA 002 John Woodruff on Fake News– 35 pts
5. USA 003 Don Winston on Molto Legato – 35 pts

Melges 24 – Following a few years of absence, the Melges 24 class returned for the 8th Annual BACARDI Miami Sailing Week event and completed in the past three days 9 races that determined the following standings:

Top 5 Overall:
1. USA 838 Kevin Welch on Mikey – 18 pts
2. USA 547 John Brown on Blind Squirrel– 19 pts
3. USA 851 Bruce Ayres on Monsoon – 20 pts
4. NOR 732 Jaw Edyul on Team RRH – 27 pts
5. USA 801 KC Shannon on Shaka – 35 pts

Flying Tiger 7.5 – Six Flying Tiger coming from as far as Ontario, Canada came to Miami for the first time this year in order to compete for one of the top prizes of this event after a 9 race series:

Top 5 Overall:
1. Sail 10 Javier Siro – 8 pts
2. Sail 06 Tom Bolland – 20 pts
3. Sail 02 Mike Ferring – 25 pts
4. Sail 05 Richard Griffin – 25 pts
5. Sail 03 Matt Gatewood – 41 pts

A-Cat – Second appearance at BACARDI Miami Sailing Week for the one-person catamaran, a fast boat that was, once again, fun to see racing on Biscayne Bay in a 8 race series:

Top 5 Overall:
1. USA 148 Chris Bolton on Drifter – 9 pts
2. USA 121 Carla Schiefer on Marstrom – 11 pts
3. USA 342 William Miller on Stinky Cheese – 26 pts
4. USA 154 Gordon Isco on Schuerer – 32 pts
5. USA 347 Dustin Romey on Fabbys Xmas Gift – 34 pts

Event details – Scoreboard – Live streaming – Facebook

Background: The 90th anniversary of the Bacardi Cup for the Star Class will hold 6 races on March 5-11. On Thursday March 9, eight other one-design classes will compete in the 8th annual BACARDI Miami Sailing Week event presented by EFG. Competitors will represent 20 different countries including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Ukraine, Uruguay, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Source: STUDIOMILANO