Viper 640 Bacardi Trophy
by Justin Scott 19 Mar 2012 19:50 GMT
'Fer De Lance' during the Bacardi Miami Sailing Week © Onne van der Wal
Cuba Libre! British Team of 'Fer De Lance' hoist the Viper 640 Bacardi Trophy for second consecutive year
In 1962 Jose 'Tito' Bacardi brought the Bacardi Cup from Havana to the Coral Reef Yacht club in Miami. For fifty years this legendary regatta has flourished on Biscayne Bay every year in March. Three years ago the original regatta grew into Bacardi Miami sailing Week and the event has become the anchor fixture on the Viper 640 Pan American circuit sponsored by EFG Bank.
For the Viper fleet this is both a grand prix regatta at one of the premier sailing locations in the world, and a midwinter social gathering of sailing friends onshore in the balmy neighborhood of Coconut Grove. "Racing Vipers on Biscayne Bay is a dress rehearsal for heaven" according to Viper Class Governor, Justin Scott... "Crystal blue tropical water, ‘breeze on' every day, a fantastic bay bounded by Miami, Key Biscayne and the reef to the South. It just doesn't get any better than this. It was three days of great racing with good friends!"
The Viper fleet take camaraderie as seriously as their sailing. Viper regatta parties are legendary and once again this year, the bars and clubs of the "Grove" saw a lot of the Viper regulars after the class dinner on Friday evening.
For the second year in a row, Fer De Lance owned by Glyn Locke from Yarmouth, Isle of Wight in the UK with team mates David Chapman and Ian Nicholson, won the regatta.
Glyn has always been competitive in boats but he didn't start in sail boats. Glyn was a member of the British rowing team in the ‘70’s. Rowing enthusiasts will remember when Glyn and Tim Crooks won the prestigious 'Silver Goblets' in the coxless pairs at the 1971 Henley Regatta, before going on to row at Cornell.
He turned to sailing after moving to the Isle of Wight in 1990 and was recruited as a grinder on a Swan maxi boat. “ I like doing something physical and being around the cockpit also enabled me to listen in to the tactical discussions that won races. It was a great way to learn from some of the best and most competitive Island sailors. Also, all racing – sailing, rowing or cars, is as much about preparation as to what happens on the track. There’s no point in entering a race if something is going to break or you are not properly prepared. We always race to win.”
Glyn started his campaign for the EFG Bank Viper Pan American Championships in 2010. "I bought two Vipers, one for home on the Isle of Wight in the UK and another to be based in North America to take a shot at the Pan American series. I liked the Viper from the get go. I am obviously fanatical about quality boat construction and lightweight hulls. The boat is super well mannered and goes really fast. Bangs per buck, you can't beat it and downhill on the Solent we embarrass much bigger boats."
Glyn emphasizes the importance of the team in racing sailboats. "We didn't have a very good season the first year but we learnt a lot, loved the circuit and determined to come back in 2011. The EFG series is made up of three regattas, in lovely locations with fun, short, well run races. We were hooked and I realized we wanted a fun crew that was going to sail together for the whole series." Glyn put together his team with David Chapman and Ian Nicholson. "David is from Sydney, Australia so he has to come a very long way for this but we sail together a lot and it works really well." says Glyn. David has been British youth match racing champion, Yngling Australian champion, and was tactician on Farr 40 that won the Australian National championships. The Viper is smaller than his recent rides and he loves it. "It's like a Farr 40 on steroids". Ian Nicholson has been sailing high performance boats ranging from the Merlin Rocket to the RS K6 for 40 years and is the team's middle man, flying chute down wind and telling jokes upwind.
Glyn tells us that he came back in 2011 with the benefit of the team spending a lot of time on the water together, "I knew we were going to do better". They were fast right out of the box and won Bacardi Miami Sailing Week. Then for the rest of the circuit, there was a terrific duel with team 'Mambo Kings' which went right down to the wire of the last race of the last regatta in the series.
Glyn and his team finally emerged as triumphant and popular winners of the 2011 EFG Bank Pan American Championship series. "We won at Miami, one place ahead of Justin Scott and the Mambo Kings, then Mambo Kings beat us in the at Newport, so it all came down to the final regatta and the final race at the North American Championship in Canada. We somehow emerged a couple of points ahead. It was really very sporting how everyone seemed so happy for us to win."
So far 2012 looks like a repeat of 2011. Fer De Lance won the regatta and Mambo Kings skippered by fellow Brit, Justin Scott with team mates Peter Largess and David Nickerson in second.
Justin begs to differ. "It was a much tougher battle this year. The boys from New Orleans on 'Last Call'... Lee, Sam and Jeff are terrific sailors from the Melges 32 class. This is only their second regatta in a Viper and they are already dialed in, especially upwind. Breeze was shifty out of East and North East and they would work their way into the top left geographic with combination of staying in phase and great straight line speed. I cannot tell you how many times, Pete would be saying "Oh man, it's the Call again, looking strong on the left" as we reached the first windward mark. For the first two days they owned us in the stronger breeze. On the third day, the breeze eased some and the Call were off the pace downwind, otherwise this could have been theirs. They'll figure it out by Charleston Race Week."
"For our part, we pulled this result out of our bottoms on the last day. Our sail number was called OCS no less than 3 times on the first two days and trying to work our way back through the Viper peloton is harder than walking through a wet ploughed field in sticky gumboots. We won the last day and eked out second place by one lucky point."
The racing was very close. Results from 2nd to 6th were all determined by a couple of points in the last race. Phil and Wendy Lotz from Rhode Island were fourth on Arethusa after winning a fantastic gybing duel with Last Call and Mambo Kings in the last 200 yards of the last race with all 3 boats crossing the line within less than half a boat length. Craig and Debbie Wilusz from Florida on ‘Ice Melted' won a tie breaker tied for 5th with Joe Healey on ‘Live Wire'. Close racing? Craig and Debbie were only 1 point out of second going into the last race.
The Viper circuit now moves to Charleston Race Week in April where 40 Vipers will be racing in the tricky confluence of three river estuaries for the Viper Atlantic Coast Championships and vying for points towards the EFG Bank Pan American Series. This will be Fer De Lance's first time in Charleston harbor and teams like Mambo Kings, Jackpot, Arethusa and Playstation are hoping that the knowledge gained from previous regattas in Charleston will give them an edge. But Ian Nicholson has the last word "Tides, mud, shifty breeze, tricky currents? I'm from Hayling Island Sailing Club, Charleston sounds like home away from home to me."
To be continued...