Another classic for 2020 Bacardi Invite

Miami, FL (March 7, 2020) – Tough, rough, and exhilarating conditions showed up in Biscayne Bay on the last day at the Bacardi Cup Invitational Regatta for the thrill of the 524 sailors gathered in Miami for this world renowned event.

An average 15 knots breeze, with gusts of over 20 knots, tested teams and served up a spectacular final day of racing for sailors and the spectator flotilla following the racing.

The 93rd Bacardi Cup Champions secured their title in the daunting Star Class with a race to spare yesterday, but Mateusz Kusznierewicz (POL) and Bruno Prada (BRA) still came out today to deliver one more impressive final race.

The pair led the fleet for the first half of the race, before they confused the upwind mark of another racecourse with the Stars’ bottom gate, giving the opportunity for Diego Negri (ITA)/ Frithjof Kleen (GER) to overhaul them and extend to win the race by 150 metres. With it Negri/ Kleen managed to climb to fourth overall.

“We were forcing on them on the last downwind,” commented Negri. “We both had a bit of a misunderstanding about the marks; we have had a couple of changes of course during the race, but we luckily realized we were going in the wrong direction before they did and managed to gain over them and round the mark in front.

“They were fast on the last upwind for another very tight finish. I am happy we won the race, it always feels great, but it’s even better at the Bacardi Cup!”

With Negri/ Kleen taking out the final race win, the fight for second and third on the podium unfolded between Paul Cayard (USA)/ Pedro Trouche (BRA) who tamed the strong wind and the waves and finished race 6 in 3rd, Augie Diaz (USA)/ Henry Boening (BRA) in 4th and Eivind Melleby (NOR)/ Joshua Revkin (USA) who started the day in second place dropping to third overall after a 9th place finish.

Claiming the glory of second place, by tiebreak advantage over Melleby/ Revkin, were Diaz/ Boening.

Additional titles awarded were Exalted Grand Master (70+; Frank Berg/ Marcel Beltz, DEN), Grand Master (60+; Diaz/ Boening), and Master (50-59; Eric Doyle/ Paison Infelise, USA).

The Race Committees had predicted a full program on the final day, and with the wind increasing as the afternoon progressed they delivered another day of outstanding racing for all eight classes.

Two races for the J/70 fleet, where Eat Sleep J Repeat (Paul Ward/ Ruairidh Scott/ Ben Saxton/ Mario Trindade) maintained their leading position with a 1-7, Surge (Ryan McKillen/ John Wallace/ Sam Loughborough/ Mark Mendelblatt) ended their regatta in second overall and Midlife Crisis in third (Bruce Golison/ Steve Hunt/ Jeff Reynolds/ Erik Shampain) after delivering the best race performance of the day, back to back second place finishes, landed third overall.

The other race win today went to the team on Catapult (Joel Ronning/ Patrick Wilson/ Christopher Stoke/ Paul Brotherton) who claimed fourth overall. Winning the 8-boat Corinthian Division was Mallory & Andrew Loe/ Cardwell Potts/ Brian Shores who finished 12th overall.

“It is great fun for us to come race up here,” commented Ward, the reigning J70 World Champion. “And winning is the icing on the cake or it’s the 10 year old Bacardi Rum on top of everything else!

“The hardest thing for us was to keep the boat going faster upwind with this kind of chop and the big gusts coming from the north. We don’t sail them much back home and we are not good with them. It was also tough to play catch up with our American friends.”

Two races for the Melges 24 and two stunning wins for USA 820 (Bora Gulari/ Taylor Canfield/ Kyle Navin/ Norman Berg/ Ian Liberty) to win overall by a 13 point margin. Second to Raza Mixta (Peter Duncan/ Victor Diaz de Leon/ Mattero Ramian/ Carlos Robles/ Willem Van Waay) and Shaka (KC Shannon/ Jackson Benvenutti/ Ben Lynchi/ Tom Sawchuk/ Elizabeth Whitener) remained in third overall despite being black flagged in the last race.

“It was a glamor day out there today,” said Canfield. “Biscayne Bay is great in this condition and we had two wins to close the event. I am sailing with a great team, they are really sharp and make my work a lot easier. This was a great tune up for the 2020 Worlds that will take place in Charleston in May. We have learned a lot. It’s my first event in the class after some time and I loved it.”

Winning the 8-boat Corinthian Division was Jan Frederik Dyvi/ Jan Boro/ Herman Horn-Johannessen/ Malin Rorvik-Sundelin/ Stian Ness Rorvik who finished 13th overall.

In the Viper 640, no change to first and second overall with the overnight leaders on USA293 (Will Graves/ Ryan Cox/ Greg Dair) claiming a 1-4 to win by 11 points over last year’s champions on Evil Hiss (Geoff Ewenson/ Mary Ewenson/ Tyler Bjorn), while Antix (Anthony O’Leary/ Ben Field/ Nicholas O’Leary) climbed up the leader board to finish in third overall. The team on Caterpillar (Peter Ill/ Alec Chicoine/ Austin Powers) took out the final race of the day to wrap up in 7th overall.

No change in the top three in the VX One, as Sendit (Bill Wiggins/ Jeff Eiber/ Darby Cappellin) maintained their form, to win by 2 points over Flying Jenny (Sandra Askew/ Kyle Kandt/ Jason Curvie) and just 1 points behind in third was VX1 (Ched Proctor/ David Guggenheim/ Monica Morgan). Today’s only race was won by LM Realty (Tim Pitts/ Rachel Daye/ Ethan Hanley), who lost out on a podium place on tiebreak and had to settle for fourth overall.

In the Open Windfoil class, it was a challenging day out on the track as the foilers tackled the gusty wind and chop. Gabriel Browne (BRA) again demonstrated his speed to take out another win, ending his debut here with 7 race wins and two 2nd places to easily secure victory. Justin Ahearn (USA) finished in second overall and Alexander Temko (USA) in third.

An eight race series for the Cabrinha AV8, the flying kite boards, saw Damien LeRoy win both of today’s concluding races and the overall series. It was an all-American podium, with Brendan Healy in second and third to Kent Marcovich.

Event information – Race details – Results – Facebook

The 93rd Bacardi Cup and Bacardi Cup Invitational Regatta was from March 2-7. Racing for the Star Class got underway March 2 with the J/70, Melges 24, Viper 640, VXOne, AV8, and Windfoil classes taking to the track on March 5. The Star fleet contested their traditional one race per day whilst all other fleets had multiple races across three days.

Final Results (Top 5):

Star Class (64 Boats; 6 races, 1 discard)
1. Savannah, Mateusz Kusznierewicz / Bruno Prada , POL – [2] -1 -1 -1 -2 -2 ; 7
2. Danilu, Augie Diaz / Henry Boening , USA – 7 -2 -5 -4 -[10] -4 ; 22
3. Survival of the fattest, Eivind Melleby / Joshua Revkin , NOR – 4 -3 -3 -3 -[9] -9 ; 22
4. Virgila, Diego Negri / Frithjof Kleen , ITA – 5 -[6] -6 -6 -5 -1 ; 23
5. GEM, Paul Cayard / Pedro Trouch , USA – 3 -9 -[17] -2 -7 -3 ; 24

J/70 (40 Boats; 8 races, 1 discard)
1. Eat Sleep J Repeat, Paul Ward / Ruairidh Scott / Ben Saxton / Mario Trindade , GBR – 2 -2 -1 -[18] -6 -4 -1 -7 ; 23
2. Surge, Ryan McKillen / John Wallace / Sam Loughborough / Mark Mendelblatt , USA – 5 -3 -4 -8 -1 -[13] -3 -4 ; 28
3. Midlife Crisis, Bruce Golison / Steve Hunt / Jeff Reynolds / Erik Shampain , USA – [26] -1 -3 -5 -9 -8 -2 -2 ; 30
4. Catapult, Joel Ronning / Patrick Wilson / Christopher Stoke / Paul Brotherinton , USA – 15 -7 -[17] -2 -2 -3 -5 -1 ; 35
5. NINE, Oivind Lorentzen / David Shreiner / Lucas Calabrese / Ian Coleman , USA – 13 -5 -2 -3 -[28] -1 -15 -19 ; 58

Melges 24 (28 Boats; 8 races, 1 discard)
1. USA 820, Bora Gulari / Kyle Navin / Norman Berg / ian Liberty / Taylor Canfield , USA – 1 -1 -2 -[7] -6 -3 -1 -1 ; 15
2. Raza Mixta, Peter Duncan / Victor Diaz de Leon / Mattero Ramian / Carlos Robles / Willem Van Waay , USA – 5 -4 -6 -1 -1 -2 -9 -[15] ; 28
3. Shaka, KC Shannon / Jackson Benvenutti / Ben Lynchi / Tom Sawchuk / Elizabeth Whitener , USA – 2 -3 -1 -17 -10 -8 -6 -[29] ; 47
4. Mikey, Kevin Welch / Jeff Madrigali / Mark Ivy / Serena Vilage / Christina Persson , USA – 3 -9 -12 -2 -5 -13 -[22] -7 ; 51
5. Zingara, Richard Reid / Bill Gooderham / Pat Mattchew / Ben Lamb , CAN – 8 -14 -[19] -5 -2 -7 -12 -5 ; 53

Viper 640 (23 Boats; 8 races, 1 discard)
1. USA 293, Will Graves / Ryan Cox / Greg Dair , USA – 1 -2 -3 -3 -3 -2 -1 -[4] ; 15
2. Evil Hiss, Geoff Ewenson / Mary Ewenson / Tyler Bjorn , USA – 6 -1 -1 -2 -5 -[8] -3 -7 ; 25
3. NESS, Mark Zagol / Tim Desmond / Arielle Darrow , USA – 2 -5 -[13] -1 -2 -7 -2 -6 ; 25
4. Antix, anthony o leary / Ben Field / Nicholas O’leary , IRL – 4 -[8] -5 -5 -7 -1 -5 -2 ; 29
5. Rigamaroo, Patrick Ryan / Norman Vallette / Mason Ryan , USA – 3 -[12] -11 -7 -6 -4 -4 -3 ; 38

Cabrinha AV8 (10 Boards; 8 races)
1. Damo, Damien LeRoy , USA – 1 -1 -1 -1 -2 -1 -1 -2 ; 10
2. SS Senderson, Brendan Healy , USA – 2 -2 -4 -2 -1 -2 -3 -1 ; 17
3. Sendy, Kent Marcovich , USA – 4 -3 -2 -5 -3 -4 -4 -3 ; 28
4. N/A, Tanguy Largeau , USA – 5 -4 -5 -4 -4 -3 -2 -7 ; 34
5. Cóndor, Jose UMANA , USA – 6 -6 -6 -7 -6 -5 -7 -5 ; 48

Open Windfoil (12 Boards; 11 races, 1 discard)
1. wind foil, gabriel Browne , BRA – 1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -[13] -1 -1 -1 ; 10
2. Cursing For a Brusing, Justin Ahearn , USA – 3 -3 -3 -[5] -3 -2 -4 -2 -2 -2 -2 ; 26
3. Windfoil, Mathias Pinheiro , BRA – [5] -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -3 -1 -3 -3 -4 ; 34
4. Good Josh, Maverick Putnam , USA – 2 -[5] -5 -3 -5 -3 -2 -3 -4 -5 -3 ; 35
5. Alex, Alexander Temko , USA – 4 -2 -2 -2 -2 -[15] -8 -13 -5 -6 -7 ; 51

VX One (8 Boats; 7 races, 1 discard)
1. SendIt, Bill Wiggins / Jeff Eiber / Darby Cappellin , USA – 2 -[5] -3 -1 -2 -2 -3 ; 13
2. Flying Jenny, Sandra Askew / Kyle Kandt / Jason Curvie , USA – 1 -3 -[6] -2 -1 -6 -2 ; 15
3. VX1, Ched Proctor / David Guggenheim / Monica Morgan , USA – 3 -1 -2 -[5] -4 -1 -5 ; 16
4. LM Realty, Tim Pitts / Rachel Daye / Ethan Hanley , USA – [7] -4 -1 -4 -3 -3 -1 ; 16
5. Tudo Bem, Michelle Warner / Madeline Gill / Hayden Bennett , USA – 4 -2 -4 -[8] -5 -4 -6 ; 25

Windfoil (2 Days – 5 Boards; 4 races; 1 discard)
1. Tillo, Damian Martinez , USA – [6] -1 -2 -1 ; 4
2. USA 320, Patton Balzebre , USA – [6] -2 -1 -2 ; 5
3. Icarus, Stacey Stokes , USA – [6] -6 -6 -3 ; 15
4. USA 1, Stefan Sosa , USA – [6] -3 -6 -6 ; 15
5. Neon green saucer, Sergio Kapul , USA – 6 -6 -6 -6 ; 24

Source: Twelve USA, INC.