Bacardi Cup Regatta - Florida
Miami, FL – 110 teams representing 26 countries are now competing in the six-day Bacardi Cup Regatta, widely regarded as one of the most competitive Star Class events in the world.
All participants compete aboard 22-foot Olympic-class Star sloops, and race teams comprise two members: a skipper and crew. The regatta participants sail one race per day from Sunday through Friday on a 10.5-mile course in Biscayne Bay, Florida. Sailors are allowed to drop their worst performance of the six races in the regatta.
Day one of the Bacardi Cup saw the Norwegian sailing team of Eivind Melleby and Petter Pederson finish first on the waters of Biscayne Bay, near Miami.
Melleby and Pederson finished a boat length ahead of Brazil’s Alan Adler, the 1989 Star Class World Champion, who sails this week with crew Ricardo Ermel. Adler/Ermel rounded all four marks in first place before losing cover to the Norwegians on the race’s final beat. Great Britain’s Iain Percy, the 2002 Star world champion, and his crew Andrew Simpson, finished third.
Winds in excess of 15 knots forced two general recalls before the race’s eventual start; and three teams, including 2008 Rolex Miami OCR Champion Xavier Rohart and crew Pascal Rambeau, were black-flagged and disqualified for crossing the line early. An early tack along the right side of the course helped Adler/Ermel to the lead at each of the four marks, followed closely by Melleby/Pederson. Both teams continued to favor the right side throughout the race and rode favorable winds to extend their lead over the rest of the fleet, before Melleby took the win.
“Our strategy was to play it safe by going right on the first beat, and the further right we went, it got better and better,” said Melleby, who sails this year in only his second Bacardi Cup. “We were in a big fight on the final beat and were able to keep clear of Adler so that he could not cover us. We’re very happy with today’s result and we’re in good form, but it’s a long regatta. All the best sailors in the world are here this week.”
The Norwegian duo bested a fleet that included Peter Bromby, one of most acclaimed Bermudian sailors of all-time and a two-time Bacardi Cup champion; George Szabo, former North American champion in both the Star and Laser classes; 2006 Bacardi Cup Champions and U.S. Olympic hopefuls John Dane and crew Austin Sperry.
Defending Bacardi Cup Champion Hamish Pepper and crew El Peel of New Zealand finished nineteenth Sunday.
Day two of the regatta was another beautiful day on Biscayne Bay. The sea breeze that greeted sailors in the morning while they were launching their boats held while the 81st Annual Bacardi Cup race committee attempted to get a start off at noon. Once, twice, three times you’re out and unlike the day before, everyone heeded the black flag and got off cleanly on the third attempt to start the race.
Predictions were for the wind to veer right throughout the day, but the group that favored the right and protected the middle left found themselves looking pretty as a right shift came through. Mark Reynolds and Jamie Gale (USA) and Henry Filter and Will Wagner (USA) rounded 1, 2 ahead of Luca Modena and Sergio Lambertenghi (ITA). At least a third of the fleet over stood the port tack layline during their approach to the weather mark. You can imagine the bobbing and weaving that was done as the 109-fleet bore away on a run and the port tackers scrambled to reach the weather mark.
Reynolds/Gael held the lead down the run, but as the wind shifted so did positions. As Prof O’Connell (IRL), who rounded the weather mark well behind the leaders said, “We frantically tried to calculate the reciprocal of 135 and realized that the leaders were sailing high. We sailed a straight line down the middle,” and rounded the left gate in third behind Modena/Lambertenghi (ITA) and Diego Negri and Luigi Viale (ITA). In the meantime, Reynolds/Gael and Marin Lovrovic, Jr. and Sinsa Mikulicic (CRO) rounded the right gate. With most of the fleet rounding the left gate, there was lots of noise – mostly shouting, but some crunching.
Negri/Viale jumped out to a five boat length lead over Mateusz Kusnierewicz and Dominik Zycki (POL) on the next shifty beat and Reynolds/Gael held onto third. Afonso Domingos and Bernardo Santos (POR) pulled into fourth with a string of Italians fighting for the spot on the Olympic team right on their tail. O’Connell/Cooke were in pursuit also.
Positions continued to shift throughout the next two legs as the breeze hovered between 6 and ten knots and Modena/Lambertenghi were able to hold the lead around the final leeward gate. The team that had a slow and steady climb through the fleet, Lars Grael and Marcelo Jordao (BRA) moved from sixth place at the bottom of the final beat to first place by keeping an eye on local legend, Augie Diaz and Phil Trinter (USA) who favored the mid-left during the final beat. The Brazilians won the race with Modena/Lambertenghi finishing second and the best Latin dancer (Diaz) in the fleet and Trinter right behind. Italians Barovier/Colaninno, and Bruni/Nobili finished fourth and fifth, respectively. O’Connell/Cooke held on to sixth.
Grael/Jordao, who just finished second in the Brazilian Olympic Trials are sitting in the lead with eight points. Diaz/Trinter are in second and O’Connell/Cooke are in third for the regatta.
Results following the first two days of racing at the 81st Annual Bacardi Cup in Miami Florida:
1. Grael/Jordao 7,1
2. Diaz/Trinter 9, 3
3. O’Connell/Cooke 9, 3
4. Scheidt/Prada 4, 12
5. Percy/Simpson 3, 14
6. Kusnierewicz/Zycki 11, 8
7. Modena/ Lambertenghi 18, 2
8. Adler/ Seifert 2/ 19
9. Domingos/Santos 12, 9
10. Negri/Viale 16, 7
Photo by Alex Gort - Lars Grael and Marcelo Jordao.
Submitted By YachtPals on 04 Mar
Bacardi Cup, Florida, Miami, Biscayne Bay, Star, star class, star sailboats, sailboats, sailing
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Day 3 Bacardi Cup Regatta - Maimi, Florida
The Youngest Team Wins the Day at the Bacardi Cup Regatta
A moderate sea breeze left Biscayne Bay awash with handfuls of seaweed and partly sunny skies on day 3 of the Bacardi Cup. After the third attempt at a start, most of the fleet headed toward Key Biscayne and a cloud bank to the northeast on their first tack to a mark that was set at 165 degrees, 2.4 nautical miles away.
Szabo/Peters jumped into the lead by staying right on the run. O’Leary/Milne “gained a boat on the downwind leg by staying in the middle, not going to extremes and trying to find pressure,” said Milne who spent a lot of time looking aft at a huge fleet behind him. The youngest team on the water had their work cut out for them during the remainder of the race. They played the middle left up the next beat and took a short hitch to sneak inside the weather mark just ahead of Dane/Sperry. Their mentors, Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR), were hot on their tails.
O’Leary/Milne and Dane/Sperry broke away from the fleet as O’Leary/Milne took the high road and Dane/Sperry took the low road. “Dane did a good job of slipping in low at the offset. It was a nice feeling to round in the lead, but then the pressure was really on to the thought his experience would win out over the young Irishmen, Dane replied, “Of course, experience and calmness overcomes a lot of things in an 8-10 knot breeze with a big fleet,” but the boys had nice downwind speed and powerful gybes.
With their third place finish in the race, Percy/Simpson pulled into the lead for the regatta. “I’ve won a lot of races in the Bacardi over the years, but I haven’t won the Bacardi Cup yet,” said Percy earlier this week.
Scores following three races at the 81st Annual Bacardi Cup
Photo: O'Leary/Milne. Photo by Bacardi Cup/Alex Gort
Bacardi Cup - Miami Florida
Winds Gusts in Excess of Thirty Knots Force Abandonment of Day Four at the Bacardi Cup
Wind gusts in excess of 30 knots and pelting rains forced the abandonment of day four of sailing at the 81st Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta on the waters of Biscayne Bay Wednesday.
After three of six races, Great Britain’s Iain Percy, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist in the Finn Class, and crew Andrew Simpson remain in first place in the overall standings with 20 points. They are followed by two-time Olympic Bronze Medalist Lars Grael and crew Marcelo Jordao of Brazil and 2004 Bacardi Cup Champions Afonso Domingos and crew Bernardo Santos of Portugal, with 24 and 28 points respectively.
Although the sailors agreed conditions were not favorable for sailing, opinions were mixed on the race committee’s decision to abandon the race:
“It wasn’t safe out there today, so the decision to come back was a good one,” said Percy. “You don’t want to get caught in weather like that.”
Added Norway’s Eivind Melleby, “Not much wind – 20 knots – where we were. Though we couldn’t see anything, we could have waited. We only sailed in because we saw the rest of the fleet sailing in.” The winner of Sunday’s first race, Melleby became aware of the race committee’s decision only after returning to shore.
Bacardi Cup Regatta Winners - Florida
Portugal’s Afonso Domingos and Bernardo Santos Win Bacardi Cup
Miami, Florida - Portugal’s Afonso Domingos and crew Bernardo Santos won the 2008 Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta on the waters of Biscayne Bay Friday, edging 2002 Star Class World Champion Iain Percy and crew Andrew Simpson in a tiebreaker.
The 2004 and now 2008 Bacardi Cup champions, Domingos and Santos remain the only European sailors ever to win the Bacardi Cup in the regatta’s 81-year history.
“There was much more wind today than on other days, and we had some great gains on the reach legs,” said Domingos, who benefited from the triangle course. “We knew where [Percy] was, but we tried not to focus on him in the last legs. Our goal was to finish in front – to go fast – and not to cover anyone specifically.”
John Dane and crew Austin Sperry, the 2006 Bacardi Cup champions and the United States’ Star Class representatives in the 2008 Olympics in August, finished third and fifth Friday and climbed to third place overall following disappointing 20th and 39th place finishes in the regatta’s first two races.
“A lot of boats had good speed upwind. We sailed strong and had two good starts,” added Sperry. “After the way we started the regatta, we just stayed calm and tried to chip away a little bit at a time. If we would have done a little better earlier in the week, things could have been different.”
The prestigious Trofeo Bacardi was presented to the winners dockside, where Domingos, Santos and Tito Argamasilla-Bacardi, the retired former vice president of public relations at Bacardi USA, drank Bacardi Rum from the Cup in a tradition that dates to the first Bacardi Cup Regattas in Cuba in the 1920s.
More than 110 teams representing 26 countries competed in the 81st Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta, one of the most competitive Star Class events in the world. The regatta is co-hosted by the Coral Reef Yacht Club and the U.S. Sailing Center, both based in Coconut Grove, Florida.
Full race results
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