Foreign teams make their mark on Biscayne Bay

Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki (Poland), current overall leaders in the 85th Bacardi Cup

Racing got underway in earnest yesterday, as the winds finally died down. The five classes – Star, Viper 640, Audi Melges 20, Melges 24 and J/80 – competed in the Bacardi Miami Sailing Week. The Star fleet, competing for the 85th Bacardi Cup, had started racing on Monday but was sidelined for the last two days as a weather system generating high winds and hazardous marine conditions sat over the area.

In the first race of the day for the Star class 2008 Olympian Peter O’Leary and David Burrows (Ireland) led around the first leeward mark followed closely by 2008 Star World Champions Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki (Poland) and Xavier Rohart and Pierre-Alexis Ponsot (France). The positions remained intact as the three teams crossed the finish line. In race two, 2007 Bacardi Cup champion Hamish Pepper and crew Jim Turner (New Zealand) were leading at the first mark, followed by Kusznierewicz/Zycki and Rohart/Ponsot, but the Polish team succeeded in beating them across the line, with the French team finishing third.

“Superb Miami conditions,” said Glyn Locke, defending champion of the Viper 640 fleet, who competed, and won, in three races with David Chapman and Ian Nocholson, all of Isle of Wight. “Great tribute to the Viper boats…really canning downhill with speed in excess of 20 knots. There are five very fast boats in the fleet with very similar speed and it comes down on who does not make mistakes. While three wins might look easy, it's actually a very hard competition. I'm looking forward very much and I will try to win Miami again,” said Glyn.

Racing continues today, through Saturday, but early morning rain today held up some of the racing again. It has not been one of the stellar weeks of racing in Miami for Bacardi Sailing Week.
Photo by Onne van der Wal