Rolex Miami OCR Regatta is here

US Sailing's 2010 Rolex Miami OCR sailing Regatta has been in town all week, they will be here through January 30.

For fleet racing in the Olympic classes, the 2010 event consists of a five-day opening series and a double-point medal race. The top ten finishers in the opening series of each event will advance to the medal race. Competitors in the Paralympic classes will have five days of fleet racing and no medal race. For match racing, which makes its debut in the 2012 Olympic Games, the regatta consists of an opening series, a knockout series, and a sail-off for boats not advancing to the knockout series. Medals will be awarded to the top three boats in each Olympic and Paralympic event on Saturday, January 30.

On Monday, January 25, staggered starts of races began and continued throughout the day. This will go on daily through Saturday, January 30, and on Saturday night at 6 pm, the closing ceremony begins at Coral Reef Yacht Club.

Yesterday was considered a perfect day according to the regatta crowd, especially after the bad weather the day before. They enjoyed the cold snap which turned into "brilliant conditions" for sailing. It allowed for many races in one day.

Israel's Gideon Kliger and Eran Sela (in photo above) took "three good races" that brought them to the top of the scoreboard in the 470 Men's class. In the 24-boat Star class, four American teams finished in the top five after three races, with Andy Horton (South Burlington, VT) and James Lyne (Granville, VT) in the lead.

"The U.S. teams did what they needed to do today: they hit about 75 percent of the shifts and had single digits for the majority of the races," said Mark Ivey (San Francisco, CA), who is here coaching the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics' Star teams. "The goal for everybody was for everyone in the top eight at all mark roundings ... which is what you have to do in a small boat fleet."

Only four points separated the top seven Women's 470 teams. Two French teams and two US teams rose to the top: Ingrid Petitjean and crew Nadege Douroux posted 13 points in the low-point scoring system, with Erin Maxwell (Norwalk, CT) and Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar (New York, NY) following close behind with 14.

The many sailors and their families will be visiting the Center Grove for shopping, dining and undwinding, hopefully when you see them, you'll make them feel welcome. The Sail the Grove Committee will be offering the visitors special things to do and discounts at various Grove restaurants and stores.

Photo by Dan Nerney