M32 Gold Cup: Wallén can’t be stopped

Miami, FL (March 1, 2014) – The teams competing in the M32 Gold Cup are getting spoiled with the great sailing conditions on Biscayne Bay, even if the second race day started with almost no breeze. The first start was postponed for almost an hour.

Several Swedish teams took the opportunity to go for a swim, but the US teams decided to stay on board since there might be sharks in the area. A gutsy statement from the vikings, or just plain stupid? Anyway, everyone was accounted for and racing begun at 13:00 in 3-4 knots of sea breeze that increased during the afternoon.

Some of the teams really improved after the first day. Fredrik Lööf and his team had to re-group after some poor decisions Friday and managed to pull of a 1st and three 2nd places. Happier faces on board today. They clearly beat Mattias Rahm, who struggled t o find the pace.

Among the US boats, Gradient V with Randy Miller showed that they are fast learners and posted three third places, overtaking the other US boats and currently on 4th place. Gradient V is the first boat in San Francisco and hopefully they’ll get their own M32 fleet going there.

Results: http://m32cup.com/gold-cup-results/

Once again Hans Wallén and his team had speed to spare and made the right decisions to post a nearly perfect score: 1-1-2-1-1. They also had luck on their side, as a general recall helped them when they were struggling at one of their starts.

But we’re not even halfway through the regatta, and points will be double on the final day of the regatta. So, as always in sports, anything might happen.

The forecast for Sunday is very similar, so the teams better stock up on water and sunscreen to prepare for another tough day in paradise.

Report by Peter Gustafsson. Photos by Jan Söderström.