French lead 90th Bacardi Cup

Miami, FL (March 8, 2017) – The third day of the Bacardi Cup got caught up with the schedule, holding two races in steady 14 knots from the ESE. The start time was moved up to 11:00 AM and shortened the distance of today’s first race in order to make up Monday’s cancellation.

Life on Biscayne Bay gets much busier tomorrow as the remaining classes – J/70, Viper 640, VX One, VX Evo, Flying Tiger and A-Cat classes – will begin racing in the 8th BACARDI Miami Sailing Week presented by EFG.

Race 2
Today’s distance was four 2.0 legs for a total of 8 nautical miles. Following a general restart with a black flag start, the race began shortly after 11:00 with 69 boats checked in.

Misura/Barac (Croatia) took the lead with U.S. Szabo/Natucci in second and Germans Voigt/Stouve in third at the weather mark. All new faces in the top ten on this second race of the week; this is how competitive the regatta is.

Szabo/Natucci round first the second mark with Misura/Barac second with World Champion Augie Diaz and Bruno Prada in fifth catching up quickly and rounding the top mark in fourth behind Anosov/Caesar (3rd) Misura/Barac (2nd) and Szabo/Natucci in first. With full breeze back on for the final downwind leg it was smooth sailing for winners George Szabo and Edoardo Natucci.

“Following yesterday’s withdrawal we couldn’t afford to have another DNF, therefore we wanted to be conservative today,” said George Szabo. “Our extensive boat repair paid off and we’re very happy of today’s win.” Eduardo Natucci added, “We started mid-part of the lane and then went left and had a great downwind leg. We then jibed on left and on the lay line, this was today’s key move.”

Marin Misura and Tonco Barac were 2 seconds ahead of Augie Diaz and Bruno Prada. Yesterday winners Rohart/Ponsot finished in 10th, a solid result that allows them to go to the third race leading the overall scoreboard.

Race 3
The race got underway with the black flag up shortly after 1:00PM for a 5-leg/10 mile course with 12 knots ESE. U.S. Macdonald/von Schwarz enjoyed an early lead followed by French Rohart/Ponsot showing a great upwind speed. Fantastic action in the cone of the top mark with Macdonald/von Schwarz (USA) in first followed by Voigt/Stouve (GER) and Rohart/Ponsot (FRA).

With another remarkable downwind leg, the French duo took the lead over Macdonald/von Schwarz and day one runner-up Mendelblatt/Liljedahl. On a closest race so far, leg 4 began with Rohart/Ponsot in P1 followed by Mendelblatt/Liljedahl and Macdonald/von Schwarz trailing at a very short distance. An exciting three way race to the finish line on this “Big Wednesday”, Mendelblatt/Liljedahl managed to finish first.

“Yesterday we made a tactical mistake and Xavier (Rohart) took advantage of the situation, but today the table was turned,” said Mendelblatt. “At the bottom mark I made a late call, pressure was on the left and we rounded gate on right. This is where we made gains and were able to engage the other two teams and take home the win.”

Second place for the young U.S. Buckingham/Sperry team and third the French duo Rohart/Ponsot (FRA) who had another great day on Biscayne Bay maintaining the top of the overall leaderboard in front of Mendelblatt/Liljedahl and Grael/Goncalves (BRA) who have been very consistent.

 

 
Current Results (Top 10 of 71; 3 races)
1. La Pelle, Xavier Rohart / Pierre Alexis PONSOT , FRA – 1 -10 -3 ; 14
2. Star, Mark Mendelblatt / Magnus Liljedahl , USA – 2 -15 -1 ; 18
3. Renata, Lars Grael / Samuel Goncalves , BRA – 6 -6 -7 ; 19
4. GM, Augie Diaz / Bruno Prada , USA – 11 -3 -6 ; 20
5. Survival of the Fattest, Eivind Melleby / Joshua Revkin , NOR – 3 -13 -5 ; 21
6. West Coast University, Charlie Buckingham / Austin Sperry , USA – 10 -12 -2 ; 24
7. Lara, Hubert Merkelbach / Sergio Lambertenghi , GER – 8 -9 -15 ; 32
8. M, Arthur Anosov / David Caesar , USA – 12 -4 -19 ; 35
9. Pied Piper/National Marine, Jack Jennings / FRITH J. F KLEEN , USA – 5 -22 -9 ; 36
10. 8401, Luke Lawrence / Ian Coleman , USA – 15 -11 -16 ; 42

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.