HOST

Coral Reef Yacht Club    
Miami FL ----------

RESULTS

REGATTA REPORT

Final results for six

races

Bacardi Week Overview

Day One Highlights by Icarus Sailing Media

Report by Paul Cayard:

Race One: I am back in south Florida for more Star sailing. This time the legendary Bacardi Cup. This year is the 88th running of this event which started in 1927 in Havana.

57 boats are racing from more than 10 countries. The competition will be tough with the Grael brothers tom Brazil, local favorite Augie Diaz, double gold medalist Mark Reynolds, and a host of other great teams that all have a chance to win.

Today’s first race finally got underway after two general recalls and the committee resorting to the black flag to keep the anxious competitors behind the line. The wind was 12 knots from the east and very shifty and puffy as it was coming right over Key Biscayne.

Brian and I had a good start but managed to work our way backwards in the fleet to round the first mark about 25th. The leader at that point, had had a horrible start, tacked behind everyone and went hard right. The second place boat at the first mark had gone hard left. Go figure.

It was a day of ups and downs as the wind was very fickle. One moment you thought you were real fast but it was just that you had a puff that others didn’t. Same with the shifts.

As the race went on, Larry Whipple and Austin Sperry worked their way from third to first. Brian and I work our way from the 25th to 7th.

Ahead of us were some very good teams. Behind us there were some too. So we were pretty fortunate to get back to 7th.

This is a long regatta, 6 races, and each race is longer than what we have been racing down here this winter. So the tactics can be a bit different. You can really get a lot of separation, (we call it leverage) from the fleet which can pay off if you hit it right.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for 15 knots from the east again. 80 degree temperatures are the norm here so don’t feel sorry for us if you are somewhere in the upper east coast or midwest.

Race Two: Report by Sailing Scuttlebutt
Brazilians not named Grael lead Bacardi Cup

Icarus Sailing Media Day Two Highlights

Miami, FL (March 3, 2015)- A beautiful tropical day was on tap for the Star sailors competing in the 88th Bacardi Cup, with the 57 teams facing 14 knots out of the ESE on Biscayne Bay. The course for day two was set a bit farther away, 3 miles South of Dinner Key Channel, and the windward leg was stretched to 2.4 miles.

The Race Committee continued needing the black flag in today’s race, which led to a successful start with only one boat called over, bow 37, Hubert Merkelbach and Gerrit Bartel (Ueberlingen, GER).

The first boats to make it to the weather mark were Torkel Borgstrom and Juan Pablo Engelhard (ARG), followed by Peter Vessella and Phil Trinter (USA), and Alexander Jorissen and Erik Veldhuizen (NED), respectively. Once the fleet reached the downwind gates it seemed that Vessella/ Trinter had fallen out of the top three, while Jorge Joao Zarif and Bruno Prada (BRA) moved up to third, eventually taking second and ultimately first place, passing Torkel Borgstrom and Juan Pablo Engelhard who led the entire day.

“We lost in the downwind leg,” says Borgstrom. “Jorge and Bruno definitely had a better downwind by being more aggressive and sailing “Laser” style. When we found out, it was too late. In any case we rounded all marks in first and we had a great day.” Jorge Joao Zarif, now the overall leader with a second yesterday and a first today, commented: “At the first weather mark we were 4th, we then passed 3 boats and we positioned ourselves in a good place for the win and we did it despite a problem we had with a block on the boom. We had a very good strategy today and our choice to go to the left was right on target. We now are first in the cumulative results and we will fight for every position without risking too much.

Brazilians named Grael top day at Bacardi Cup Day Three - March 4
It’s hot, hot, hot in Miami for the third day of Star racing in the 88th Bacardi Cup. Great sailing conditions continue with wind out of the SE and blowing about 15 knots. After 2 postponements, caused by the pin boat’s anchor dragging and a major wind shift, a general recall, and another postponement, the Stars finally got a start off at 12:46 p.m., with the Black Flag flying.

After a 2.4 mile upwind leg, it is Paul Cayard and Brian Terhaar (USA) in first, Alberto Zanetti and Brian Fatih (ARG) in second, and Torben S. Grael and Guilherme de Almeida (BRA) in third. But at the bottom gate it was Grael/ de Almeida in the lead, with brother Lars Grael and Samuel Gon