Bacardi Cup topped on Biscayne Bay

Miami, FL (March 10, 2022) – It was another beautiful sailing day – brilliant breeze, sparkling turquoise waters, and warm weather – as the Star Class was joined on Biscayne Bay by the full line-up of one-design classes at the Bacardi Cup Invitational Regatta.

The Star contested the traditional one race, with three races wrapped up for each of the J/70, Melges 24, Viper 640, and VX One. The 69F, which made its event debut, completed six races.

Across the race courses, the breeze tracked from 10-18 knots, with the overcast morning giving way to sunshine. The forecast has so far delivered perfect race conditions and looks set to remain game on for tomorrow.

Star Class
Racing got underway in a 10 knot breeze and very similar conditions to yesterday. A couple of rain showers either side of the course for the second windward leg yanked the breeze, forcing a change of course.

Jack Jennings (USA) and Pedro Trouche (BRA) got to work straight away, conjuring up more of yesterday’s magic to call the race track tune, lead from start to finish and claim another win. They shift up to leader board 4th and sit just one point adrift of Diego Negri/ Sergio Lambertenghi, who finished the race immediately behind and retain 3rd overall.

“I feel really glad with the way we are sailing,” said Trouche. “We are feeling good with our routine. Every day in the morning we have breakfast together, briefing for the day and then we go out as early as we can, doing some practice. So it is working out, yeh.”

Defending Bacardi Cup Champions Mateusz Kusznierewicz/ Bruno Prada hold firm as series leaders, but again struggled further back in the pack. Unlike yesterday, they couldn’t chip through and had to settle for a 6th place finish. Eric Doyle/ Payson Infelise crossed the line in 4th place and hold firm in 2nd overall.

The race discard kicked in which, though not impacting the order of the top three, has shuffled places behind and compressed the points a little closer, making tomorrow’s race a challenge for control of the podium places ahead of Saturday’s concluding race.

Star (57 Boats)
1. Mateusz Kusznierewicz / Bruno Prada , POL – 1 -1 -2 -[6] ; 4
2. Eric Doyle / Payson Infelise , USA – 3 -2 -3 -[4] ; 8
3. Diego Negri / Sergio Lambertenghi , ITA – [4] -4 -4 -2 ; 10

J/70 Class
Three races of around fifty-five minutes were completed in 13-18 knots of breeze and superb planning conditions. With so much depth in performance, racing was close around the track, but the clear frontrunners scoring 1,3,2 are Paul Ward (GBR) and his team of Charlie Cumbley, Elliot Willis, and Matt Howard.

Explaining their consistency, Ward said, “We’ve had a couple of really good days training. It is really, really nice conditions out here and we have felt really, really quick. We were going quick upwind, Elliott was doing a great job with the trim and then downwind Matt was getting a really good workout on the kite. We were just fast pretty much every direction, so it was a good day today.”

“Our plan was clean starts, get to the right-hand side and it seemed to pay off quite nicely,” continued Cumbley. “It always looked better the further you nudged that way for the most part.”

Race wins also went to Mexico’s Ignacio Perez and the USA’s Bobby Julien. Mixed fortunes for Ed Lebens (USA) who scored a masterful 2,2, before being knocked back to a 27th place finish in race 3.

J/70 (38 Boats)
1. Paul Ward / Charlie Cumbley / Elliot Willis / Matt Howard , GBR – 1 -3 -2 ; 6
2. Ignacio Perez / Santiago Perez / Juan Ignacio Perez / Moritz Spitzauer , MEX – 5 -1 -8 ; 14
3. Bobby Julien / Alec Anderson / Will Felder / Chris Waters / Sam Loughborough , USA – 11 -7 -1 ; 19

Melges 24
Getting into groove straight away for the 9-race series was 2021 and 2020 Bacardi champion Bora Gulari (USA), following up with a 4th in race 2, but then Gulari and two other boats were over the line for the start of race 3, so will need the discard to kick in after race 6 to get back in the frame.

Back-to-back 2nd places finishes pitches Brian Porter’s ‘Full Throttle’ in front.

“We just came from Wisconsin where it was snowing yesterday, so great to be in the warmer weather,” said RJ Porter, son of Brian. “Competition was very tough out there, so being that consistent was very good for us. We’ve definitely got to take it race by race, get off the starting line that’s the most important thing, and just try not to get ourselves caught up in a corner.”

Drew Freides took the race 2 win, with race 3 in the hands of Travis Weisleder.

Racing with Freides, 1992 Olympic silver medallist Morgan Reeser was brimming after the day, saying, “I am probably the luckiest person in the world today! An amazing day, nice and warm, no foul weather gear needed and the rest of my team is so good.”

Explaining their race strategy, Reeser said, “When it is from the south, there is no land in the way, the shifts aren’t that big, so it is mostly boat speed. So the key is just clear lanes. Early in the day some storm clouds probably made right better than left, then later in the day it turned into a sea breeze and it was left better than right. Just go fast, which was awesome.”

Melges 24 (26 Boats)
1. Brian Porter / RJ Porter / Bri Porter / Matt Woodworth , USA – 2 -2 -2 ; 6
2. Drew Freides / Charlie Smythe / Morgan Reeser / Federico Michetti / Lara Poljsak , USA – 5 -1 -6 ; 12
3. Harry Melges IV / Finn Rowe / Ripley Shelley / Carlos Robles / Nick Muller , USA – 7 -3 -3 ; 13

Viper 640
Front of fleet results were spread around, with a fairly even performance amongst the top boats on day one.

Three races down and their 1,3,4 scorecard gives Colin Santangelo the advantage, with Peter Ill 3 points back. After finishing 2nd in 2020, Mary Ewenson raced a solid series, picking up a win in race 2 to end the day in 3rd.

Viper 640 (15 Boats)
1. Colin Santangelo / Ivan Shestopalov / Trevor Long , USA – 1 -3 -4 ; 8
2. Peter Ill / Stephen Sparkman / Maxwell Plarr , USA – 2 -4 -5 ; 11
3. Mary Ewenson / Mark Zagol / Jane Moore / Max Vinocur , USA – 4 -1 -8 ; 13

VX One
2022 year marks the largest VX One fleet yet in Miami, with twenty-five new and returning teams.

Establishing themselves in the game early on and getting on the scoresheet with a 6th place and two race wins are Austin Powers/Monica Morgan who lead by a one-point advantage. Kaitlyn Liebel/Mark Liebel won the opener, following up with a 6,2 to place 2nd overall.

“This is the biggest fleet of VXs,” commented Hayden Bennett, who finished 2nd at the recently held VX One Mid-Winters and sits in 7th overall. “Flat water, big breeze, warm weather, you can’t really complain about too much.

“Miami always puts on a good show, so we always have nice competitive racing. It’s obviously great to mingle in with the other fleets, the social events are always perfect, the few days we are here is always a blast.”

VX One (23 Boats)
1. Michelle / Monica / Austin / Austin Powers / Monica Morgan , USA – 6 -1 -1 ; 8
2. Kaitlyn Liebel / Mark Liebel / Jordan Wiggins , USA – 1 -6 -2 ; 9
3. Kevin Northrop / Max Albert / Andrew Brennan , USA – 3 -4 -4 ; 11

Series information – Race details – Results

The Stars race on March 7-12 with the J/70, Melges 24, Viper 640, VX One, and 69F classes racing on March 10-12.

The 2021-22 Bacardi Invitational Winter Series is held for J/70 and the Melges 24 fleets on December 18-19 and January 28-30 (along with Persico 69F) with the finale on March 10-12. Also racing in March are the VX One, Viper 640, and Persico 69F classes. Additionally, the Star Class will headline the historic Bacardi Cup, one of the world’s oldest sailing events, which celebrates its 95th anniversary on March 7-12, 2022. – Details

Source: Bacardi