2021 Comodoro Rasco Snipe Regatta

Thirty-one teams competed in the 2021 Comodoro Rasco Snipe Regatta hosted by Coconut Grove Yacht Club on January 30-31 in Miami, FL.

Five races were completed as 2017 Snipe World Champion, Raul Rios (Puerto Rico), sailing with Jose Arturo Diaz (Puerto Rico), won the event. Taylor Scheuermann and Mario Urban of Miami placed second, and Enrique Quintero (Miami) and Diego Escobar (San Diego) rounded out the top three. The Top Junior (Under 22) prize went to Trevor Long (Boston) and Lucas Masiello (Annapolis).

Day one of the regatta brought winds ranging from 11 to 15 knots with major shifts often mixing up the standings significantly throughout races.

Rios and Diaz dominated race one, but the rest of the fleet was very tight making for exciting downwind in the breeze and some interested mark roundings. Race two was won by Western Hemisphere Champions Ernesto Rodriguez and Kathleen Tocke. With the fleet being aggressive in race three, it took three attempts before the Race Committee could get a start off. Again it was Rio and Diaz in first and Rodriguez and Tocke in second.

Other notable performances for the day were Peter and Connie Commette (Ft. Lauderdale) and Arthur Blodgett and Gracie Howie (Fort Lauderdale) who sailed consistently in the top five.

Day two saw the wind further right, very stable, but with significantly more chop. The breeze ranged between eight and eleven knots. Both of the days races were won by Rodriguez and Tocke and there was a significant mixing of boats at the top of the top of the fleet.

The Comodoro Rasco Regatta was inaugurated by Commodore Manuel Rasco of the Miramar Yacht Club in Havana, Cuba in the 1950s and first run by Gonzalo “Old Man” Diaz in Miami in 1970. Coconut Grove Sailing Club has been the perpetual host of the storied event.

Event details: https://www.regattanetwork.com/event/21629

Source: Kathleen Tocke