Bacardi Cup: Irish Sailors Top the Star fleet

by Jan Harley

The air temperature cooled slightly, but not the action, for the penultimate day of BACARDI Miami Sailing Week presented by EFG Bank. A north-northwesterly breeze and calmer weather on Biscayne Bay allowed the Star class, competing for the 84th BACARDI Cup, to add two races to their scoreline.

With gusts, at times, to 20 knots, Sweden’s Fredrik Lööf and Max Salmiren took the win in the first race for the Stars. “We positioned ourselves off the starting line more or less in the middle of the fleet and it was a bit of a drag race because the mark was quite a long way to the right,” said Lööf. “At that point, most boats were right port tack and the sailors that positioned themselves too far to the left suffered a lot. We sailed quite aggressively toward the end and we positioned ourselves on the favored side with the wind coming in from the right. Still it was close, we lost a little bit, and then we came up and were across the finish line by no more than half a boat length. It was a good battle and an interesting, really close race."

Unfortunately, Lööf and Salmiren did not fare as well in the second race, placing 20th, which they attributed to a rough start. “If you're not in the front right away, you're struggling all the way through,” said Lööf. “A lot of those guys were pushing hard at the start." That second race was won by Alexander Schlonski and Matthias Bohn (Germany) who finished ahead of their fellow countrymen Johannes Babendererde and Timo Jacobs.

Only one Star team has recorded single-digit finishes over the course of the five races thus far. 2008 Olympian Peter O’Leary and David Burrows (Ireland) finished 8-4 today to move from fourth overall into the lead of the 89-boat fleet with 18 points. Guillaume Florent and Pascal Rambeau (France) are one point behind in second overall. Lööf and Salmiren and early series leaders Eivind Melleby and Petter Morland Pedersen (Norway) are third and fourth, respectively, with 24 points each. Andy Horton (South Burlington, Vermont) and crew James Lyne (Granville, Vermont) finished 3-6 today to move from ninth up to fifth overall with 25 points.

Results (5 races, 1 discard) - top ten:
Position - Country - Sail number - Skipper/Crew - Sail number - Fleet - Race 1 - Race 2 - Race 3 - Race 4 - Race 5 - Points Total (including discard)

1 IRL 8418 Peter O'Leary David Burones 8418 ISOL 7.0 2.0 5.0 8.0 4.0 18
2 FRA 8270 Guillaume Florent Pascal Rambeau 8270 VF 3.0 10.0 1.0 5.0 15.0 19
3 SWE 8428 Fredrik Loof Max Salminen 8428 Bk 28.0 1.0 2.0 1.0 20.0 24
4 NOR 8317 Eivind Melleby Petter Morland Pedersen 8317 NOR 1.0 8.0 4.0 94.0 [BFD] 11.0 24.0001
5 USA 8396 Andy Horton Jamie Lyne 8396 NB 8.0 17.0 8.0 3.0 6.0 25
6 NZL 8187 Hamish Pepper Craig Monk 8187 ISOL 14.0 3.0 10.0 2.0 18.0 29
7 BER 8442 Peter Bromby Lee White 8442 ISOL 53.0 19.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 31
8 GER 8140 Alexander Schlonski Matthias Bohn 8140 Lub 18.0 94.0 [DNS] 7.0 6.0 1.0 32
9 POL 8417 Mateusz Kusznierewicz Dominik Zycki 8417 ISOL 6.0 6.0 15.0 11.0 13.0 36
10 POL 8412 Maciej Grabowski Lukasz Lesinski 8412 ISOL 9.0 5.0 13.0 25.0 12.0 39

Bacardi Cup