Melges 32s at the ACURA Miami Grand Prix - Overall

Taselaar delivers astounding performance

Pieter Taselaar aboard 'Bliksem' delivered a mind blowing display of speed and tactical excellence to win Premiere Racing's 2009 ACURA Miami Grand Prix. Four days and ten races later, Taselaar took victory by an eight point margin.

Pieter Taselaar (New York, NY) on USA-169 Bliksem with the help of tactician extraordinary Jeremy Wilmot, crew members Paul Atkins, Michael Coxon, Willem Van Waay, Alex Clegg, Nathan Wilmot and bowman George Peet delivered an impressive performance to take the title of 2009 ACURA Melges 32 Miami Grand Prix Champion! In second overall, is John Kilroy (San Francisco, Calif.) on USA-188 Samba Pa Ti. In third was Joe Woods on GBR-700 Red.

Despite the fact that Taselaar had a lead that could not necessarily be broken, it was Kilroy that perhaps had the only reasonable hope of breaking their winning spirit. That hope was crushed at the start of race one of the day when Kilroy was called over early, alongside of some others major players like Woods and Jason Carroll (New York, N.Y.) on USA-128 Argo. Upwind Kip Meadows (Rocky Mount, N.C.) on USA-77 roXanne and Geoff Pierini (Perth Amboy, N.J.) on USA-178 Shakedown stuck it out on the right, putting them in control of the fleet at the first weathermark rounding. Meadows took a hold of the lead and never let go. That was, until he crossed the finish line in first, Pierini took second and in third Marty Kullman and Mike Carroll on (Tampa, Fla.) on USA-131 New Wave in third.

The second race of the day found Kilroy struggling for the lead coming hot into the weathermark, right behind Jim Swartz (Edgartown, Mass.) on USA-007 Q in first. Ryan DeVos (Holland, Mich.) on USA-180 Alpha One rounded in third. Swartz made a winning sweep of the race, taking his lead from start to finish. Kilroy on the other hand continuously held off the likes of Peter Rogers (Lymington, UK) on GBR-121 Highlife, Alex Jackson (Riverside, Conn.) on USA-174 Leenabarca and Devos for second place. The move of the race goes to Taselaar who was considerably deep in the fleet came in from the right to take a surprising third behind Kilroy finishing in second. Meadows, also in from the right took fourth and Rogers took fifth.

A grand awards ceremony was held just after four o'clock in the afternoon where Taselaar accepted top honors in the Melges 32 fleet.

The successful partnership of Kullman and Carroll on New Wave are double, back-to-back ACURA Grand Prix Winners! Congratulations to the legendary Kullman/Carroll team who had a trivial week in Miami finishing fifth overall, won the Gold Cup back in December and scored fourth in Key West enabling them to retain the coveted title.

Special thanks to Peter Craig and his entire Premiere Racing staff, especially Alison Snipes, Mike Travato and Jeanne Kleane for an outstanding event. Additional thanks goes to Melges 32 Owner John Taylor on Ninkasi for the use of his support tender onsite in Miami. Without his passion and unwavering support for the Melges 32, and the careful hand of our driver Jim Condon, the race reports, blog and hundreds of photos would not have been possible.

Most especially, thank you to all the teams who traveled the distance to be with the fleet in Miami. Many teams traveled, some from abroad that ultimately made this event a tremendous success!

Overall Results: (top ten)

1. Pieter Taselaar, Bliksem; 1-1-1-2-7-5-1-3-[8]-3 = 24pts
2. John Kilroy, Samba Pa Ti; 2-6-3-4-3-2-9-1-[13]-2 = 32pts
3. Joe Woods, Red; 7-8-2-3-2-9-4-6-[11]-7 = 48pts
4. Jim Swartz, Q; 4-2-3avg1-5-[14]-14-7-9-4-1 = 49pts
5. Marty Kullman/Mike Carroll, New Wave; [15]-14-5-1-5-1-15-5-3-6 = 55pts
6. Kip Meadows, roXanne; 5-5-9-[14]-6-7-6-13-1-4 = 56pts
7. Carlo Alberini, Calvi Network; [12]-4-6-9-1-6-12-11-7-10 = 66pts
8. Jason Carroll, Argo; 8-3-7-11-11-3-2-[12]-9-12 = 66pts
9. John Taylor, Ninkasi; 3-[13]-14-8-8-4-3-4-14-14 = 71pts
10. Alex Jackson, Leenabarca; 10-7-4-7-10-12-8-2-12-[16] = 72pts

Click here for full overall results