Full Attendance for Miami Sailing Week

Miami, FL (March 9, 2017) – The landscape on Biscayne Bay was significantly fuller today as the Star fleet at the 90th Bacardi Cup Regatta was joined by seven classes – J/70, Viper 640, VX One, VX Evo, A-Cat, Flying Tiger and M24 – beginning the 8th Annual BACARDI Miami Sailing Week presented by EFG.

Star – 69 boats
Around 2:00PM the fleet was set to go but RC called three general recalls following a two hour holding pattern. Five boats were black flagged while racing resumed also for the other three circles on an average of 7 knots from the east. At the top mark Grael/Goncalves (BRA) rounded first followed by Szabo/Natucci and Della Torre/Sacrpatti (ARG) with leaderboard French duo Rohart/Ponsot in seventh.

With two legs to go it’s a phenomenal battle for first between Grael/Goncalves and Szabo/Natucci with Diaz/Prada in third and Rohart/Ponsot in sixth. In the final upwind leg the Brazilian team will be protecting the lead by keeping the boat speed, while Szabo/Natucci tried to catch-up trying different strategies, but wasn’t enough. Behind them solid run of Diaz/Prada (USA).

“The waiting period prior to the start created anticipations to get going, but RC made a good call in holding the start,” commented Lars Grael. “It would have bee a lottery race, but luckily it wasn’t… it was light but fair.” In the overall we now have Mark Mandelblatt/Liljedahl followed by Xavier Rohart/Ponsot and Augie Diaz/Prada jumping to third.

J/70 – 36 boats
The fleet had a 7 knot easterly breeze to complete the first three races of the series. With 11 points Midlife Crises of Bruce Golison (Rossmoor, CA) is on top of the chart after 3 races with a fifth, second and fourth place. Second place for Martin Kullman (St. Persbourg, FL), and bottom of the podium for John Baxter (Riverside, CT). Maintaining boat speed was the main focus of today and it was a big challenge.

Viper 640 – 22 boats
The fleet enjoyed three races and a couple of holding patterns. On top we find, with two first and a third, Terminally Pretty of Geoff Ewenson (Annapolis, MD) followed by William Abbott (Sarnia, ON) on Jackpot followed by John Dane III (Gulfport, MS) on Colonel Rebel 3 and 7 points behind.

VX One – 15 boats
Christopher Alexander (Ocean Springs, MS) on Isabelita con Queso is on top of the chart with two wins and a third. Second place for Tim Pitts (Newport, RI) on Cruzan Rhode followed by Sam Padnos (Holland, MI) on TWD 5 and 11 points behind.

The Rest
Brian Bennett leads the 6-boat VX Evo, Carla Schiefer leads the 5-boat A Cats, Javier Siro leads the 6-boat Flying Tiger 7.5, and Kevin Welch leads the 6-boat Melges 24.

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.