Fifth BACARDI® Miami Sailing Week Presented by EFG Bank - Day 2
by Icarus Sailing Media 4 Mar 2015 07:00 GMT
2-7 March 2015
Picture perfect day in Biscayne Bay with ideal sailing conditions for Star racing
Miami once again delivered a beautiful tropical day with 14 knots out of the ESE for Star sailors competing in the 88th Bacardi Cup. Results from day 1 have once again changed after a redress protest was filed resulting in the reinstatement of Larry Whipple and Austin Sperry. Therefore, the top three boats after day 1 are Larry Whipple in first, Jorge Joao Zarif in second and Arthur Anosov in third.
Today the course 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 todays 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 (San Fernando, ARG), followed by Peter Vessella and Phil Trinter (Miami, FL), and Alexander Jorissen and Erik Veldhuizen (Loosdrech, NED), respectively. Once the fleet reached the downwind gates it seemed that Peter Vessella and Phil Trinter had fallen out of the top three, while Jorge Joao Zarif and Bruno Prada (Sao Paulo, BRA) moved up to third, eventually taking second and ultimately first place, passing Torkel Borgstrom and Juan Pablo Engelhard who lead the entire day. "We lost in the downwind leg," says Torkel 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 round all marks in first and we had a great day."
Jorge Joao Zarif winner of today's long race 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."
Second after two days of racing is the duo of Mark Reynolds and Magnus Liljedahl (San Diego, CA). "Finishing fifth and fourth respectively is a good result for the series which still has four days of racing. Today we were lucky as some sailed way too far and we were able to hang in there with a solid performance. Most of all I really enjoyed today's sailing conditions which were spectacular and great for the Star boats," concluded Magnus Liljedahl.
Third overall are Lars Grael and crew Samuel Goncalves. "We are happy to have finished 10th today," says 2014 Bacardi Cup Champion Lars Grael, "but we were penalized by the wrong strategy we chose at the start. We went right and it ended up we were on the wrong side. We round the first mark in the 20th position and worked our way up to 10th. The Series is still long and being third is a good spot." Concluded Lars.
Racing will resume tomorrow with a noon start. Plenty of wind and sun is forecast for the third day in a row.
This afternoon, BACARDI Happy Hour will take place at the BACARDI Village hospitality, in Kennedy Park, from 4-6 p.m. Sailors can drink, eat, and socialize in the BACARDI Village, or head over to Coco Walk to check out Sailing Dreams, a special art exhibit by Vicki DaSilva. The art exhibit along with a pop-up store will be set up inside Unit 115, until March 7th. DaSilva is exhibiting 10 light paintings (made by moving a hand-held light source while taking a long exposure photograph) that present to the community how she interprets the beautiful sport of sailing into art.
The sixth annual running of BACARDI Miami Sailing Week (BMSW) presented by EFG Bank will run through March 7, 2015. Regatta headquarters are at Kennedy Park in Coconut Grove. The Star class, whose teams are competing in the 88th Bacardi Cup, headlines the six day BMSW racing schedule. Over the last four days of the regatta, competitors in the J/70, M32, Viper 640 and VX One classes will join the Stars on Biscayne Bay.
Full results are available at www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=1222 while more information on the BACARDI Miami Sailing Week and the 88th BACARDI Cup is available at www.MiamiSailingWeek.com and www.BacardiCup.com.