Bacardi Sailing Week coming back to Grove

Norway’s Eivind Melleby and Petter Morland Pedersen at 2010 Bacardi Miami Sailing Week.

Following a successful inaugural year, Bacardi Miami Sailing Week (BMSW) will return to Coconut Grove, for its second annual running from March 6-12, 2011.

Featured at the week-long regatta will be the 84th running of the historic Bacardi Cup for the Star Class. The Bacardi Cup was conceived in 1927 as a three-day event with less than ten boats competing for the Trofeo Bacardi as part of Cuba’s Mid-Winter Championship. The regatta continued for 30 years until political unrest forced the Cup to move in 1962 from Havana to the Coral Reef Yacht Club in Coconut Grove. Since continuing ever since in the Grove, the Cup has grown into an internationally renowned sailing spectacle with as many as 200 world-class sailors representing 23 different countries, all channeling the grand tradition of camaraderie that has made the event so cherished by its participants.

The event will be a six-day experience that will gather national and international sailing classes together in a fun-filled week of regattas, awards ceremonies, parties, and cultural exhibits. The racing begins on March 7, with events scheduled daily through March 12. The prestigious Coral Reef Yacht Club will coordinate on-water activities in collaboration with Biscayne Bay Yacht Club and Coconut Grove Sailing Club. The U.S. Sailing Center and Shake-A-Leg Miami will also support the event. Racing will be held on three separate courses approximately two miles out on Biscayne Bay. Event registration is online at www.MiamiSailingWeek.com.

Photo by Cory Silken.