Bacardi Rum and Racing in Miami

The 90th anniversary of the Bacardi Cup for the Star Class begins on Monday March 5 to 11 in Miami, FL. 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.

Racing will be held on five different circles on Biscayne Bay extending from Vizcaya Museum to Cutler Bay with water activities coordinated by Coral Reef Yacht Club in collaboration with the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club and with the help of the U.S. Sailing Center and Shake-A-Leg Miami.

Over 70 Star teams will compete in the highly competitive Bacardi Cup. Star Class World Champion Augie Diaz (Miami, FL), 2014-15 back to back champions Lars Grael / Samuel Goncalves (Rio de Janeiro, BRA) and 2012 winner Xavier Rohart (Martigues, FRA) will have to look out for other world-class sailors racing in their class including, Fabio Prada / Cristiano Ruschmann (Sao Paulo, BRA) and 2013 Cup winner Mark Mendelblatt (Miami, FL).

The J/70 Fleet continues to be the second largest class of BMSW with 35+ boats, which include Vincenzo Onorato’s Mascalzane Latino (Milan, Italy), Will Welles’ Scamp (Portsmouth, RI) and Peter Duncan’s Relative Obscurity (Rye, NY).

With 25 boats registered, the Viper 640’s are competing not only for the BMSW title, but also in their final event of the EFG Pan-American Championship. This year long event culminates in the Championship Regatta during BMSW. Tight racing as always for this fleet that in the past 18 months staged numerous outstanding local, regional, and national regattas. BMSW enjoys hosting the Vipers for 8 consecutive years!

Returning for their 4th appearance at BMSW is the VX One, racing this year with 20 entrants including the VX Evo boats. 2016 runner-up and 2015 BMSW winner John Potter (Beaufort, SC) will have to work hard to defend their previous results as some other great sailors have been added to the mix, including longtime VX One sailor Timothy Pitts and Wild Deuces’ Paul Currie from Toronto, Canada.

Making their second appearance in the BMSW is the A-Cat class. With 10 entrants expected to be on the starting line, the A-Cat catamaran is the most actively raced high performance single-handed boat in North America and capable of reaching speeds over 22 knots in 12 knots breeze. New for 2017 is the Flying Tiger 7.5 Class with 10 boats expected along with returning Melges 24 Class.

Part of BMSW racing activities will be the M32 catamarans which will compete on Biscayne Bay from Friday March 10th to Sunday the 12th.

The BACARDI Village hospitality for BACARDI Miami Sailing Week will be set up for the first time at Regatta Park, where sailors will enjoy BACARDI Rum, food and music.

Event details: https://yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=2963