(Miami, Florida)- Forty-eight J/70 teams happily made their migration
from the wicked-cold weather in the North down to Coconut Grove to
compete in the sixth BACARDI Miami Sailing Week (BMSW) presented by EFG
Bank in Miami, Florida. And, holy smokes were they happy they did! New
England, yet again, was hammered by yet another snow storm dropping up
to a solid foot of snow in most places! Even better yet, the fleet was
blessed with classic Biscayne Bay sailing conditions, with winds ranging
from 4-6 kts and blistering warm on Friday, to gorgeous breezes on
Thursday and Saturday in the 8 to 15 kts range.For the enormous J/70 fleet, the event began on Thursday, March 5 and finished on Saturday, March 7. On the water, Coral Reef Yacht Club coordinated activities in collaboration with the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club and with the help of the U.S. Sailing Center and Shake-A-Leg Miami. And perhaps even better than that amazing slate of hosts, the J/70 fleet was treated to their own race course with “most excellent” race course management all weekend long!
This
year’s record number of J/70s came from seven nations, including the
USA, Italy, Bermuda, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, and Norway. Many of the
top teams from the J/70 Midwinters in Key West and the Quantum J/70
Winter Series were in attendance. After the dust cleared from the fog
of war, it was a startling revelation for many teams to see the entire
top three consisting of foreign teams! Like his Brazilian friends that
eclipsed the Star Class, it was Mauricio Santa Cruz’s team on BRUSCHETTA
(Sergio Almeira, Maxim Werrgert, & Daniel Glomb) that were crowned
the BACARDI Miami Sailing Week J/70 champions! Their come from behind
win was well-deserved and it all came down to the last two races on the
final day.
The
J/70s completed eight races over the three-day BMSW event. The first
day of racing started off in amazing weather conditions, with the fleet
treated to three races in ESE 10 to 15 kts winds. Fast out of the box
was the deeply talented FLOJITO Y COOPERANDO team from Mexico, with
Julian Fernandez Neckelmann driving with a world-class crew of Bill
Hardesty (Etchells 22 World Champion and US Sailing Rolex Yachtsman of
the Year), Willem Van Way and Erik Brockman. FLOJITO’s 1-3-1 put them
comfortably in the lead over J/70 Midwinter Champion CALVI NETWORK from
Italy driven by Carlo Alberini and crew of Branko Brcin, Karlo Hmeijak
and Sergio Bossi that posted a 2-2-4. Absent since the J/70 Worlds in
Newport, Brian Keane’s SAVASANA dove back into the fray with his team of
Tom Barrows, Joe Mavvis, Mike Danish and Stan Edwards to post a 5-7-2
score to hang onto third for the day. What was most remarkable about
the balance of the top ten was that literally every boat had a least one
deep double-digit score— a trend that would rear its ugly head for
every boat in the top ten by the end of the regatta!
The
second day dawned with no wind and 80 degree, very humid heat. The
J/70 fleet PRO wisely postponed several times in order to wait for the
inevitable seabreeze to fill in by noon-time. The fleet sailed out by
noon in a freshening breeze and despite challenging wind conditions, the
PRO managed to knock-out three races on Friday, giving the fleet a
total of six races. Jumping into the lead for the first time were the
Italians on CALVI NETWORK with 14 points, followed by the Brazilians on
BRUSCHETTA with 19 points and then the Mexicans on FLOJITO Y COOPERANDO
with 20 points.“Today, 6 knots of shifty wind and high temperatures made racing very difficult,” said Carlo Alberini. “Today’s was a tactician day and ours made the difference. Competition between Mauricio Santa Cruz, Julian Fernandez and us is always very close and it seems to be a continuation of our Key West battles. In reality, the top ten boats are all very competitive. For tomorrow I hope we have stronger winds!”
The last day of racing saw a little change in the weather with overcast skies and scattered showers. The wind also switched directions and was coming out of the NE between 10 and 15 knots. All courses had 10:55 a.m. warning signals with no races starting after 2:00 pm. It was going to be a battle for the final day for the entire top ten. While there was a three-way race for the overall championship, there was also a duel for 4th and 5th between Will Welles’ RASCAL and Tom Bowen’s REACH AROUND and a free-for-all between the next six boats for the top ten places that included Kerry Klingler’s NEW WAVE, Keane’s SAVASANA, Stan Edwards’ LICKETY SPLIT, Heather Gregg’s MUSE, Joel Ronning’s CATAPULT and Dave Franzel’s SPRING. No one in this grouping of boats was immune from having yet another bad race!
The
first race on the last day turned into a bit of a Russian roulette
parlor game! Literally, 45 seconds before the start the wind just about
evaporated to nothing, with an enormous chop left over from what was a
steady 8-13 kt breeze out of the North. As the fleet scratched and
clawed their way off the congested starting line at the frenetic pace of
0.75 kts (thereabouts), various packs of boats decided to shoot both
corners while yet others tried to play it conservative up one side of
the middle or the other. What was certain was the Gods must be crazy or
Neptune was upset. In either case, the entire fleet “flip-flopped”,
with many top boats taking high double-digit scores and most of the
bottom of the fleet experiencing single-digit scores for the first
time! As insane as that race was, only the two leaders escaped the
veracity of the Gods in this one, with BRUSCHETTA taking a 6th to
FLOJITO’s 4th. CALVI NETWORKS’ 17th dropped them out of the running for
the overall win.The grand finale was perhaps by far the most epic race of the regatta; the combination of good breeze and very close competition made for a memorable regatta. With a nice long starting line, the fleet took off into a 12-17 kts NNE breeze with sparkling sun dancing across the wave-tops. It was a fitting end to an excellent regatta. It was “planing mode” downwind for the entire race, making for some huge cheshire-cat grins on everyone’s faces at the end. By taking 2nd in the finale, BRUSCHETTA earned a well-deserved come-from-behind victory. FLOJITO’s 5th place garnered them a 2nd overall while CALVI took 1st in the race; not enough to overcome their colleagues, settling instead for 3rd overall. The balance of the top five was Welle’s RASCAL in 4th overall and fifth went to Bowen’s REACH AROUND.
In
the Corinthian’s Division, Heather Gregg’s MUSE repeated her
performance at the J/70 Worlds in Newport, winning the class by an
enormous margin of 37 points; finishing tied for 8th overall in the Open
Division; and was top women’s skipper again. Second was Jim
Cunningham’s LIFTED, repeating yet another top performance after winning
Corinthians in the J/70 Midwinters in Key West. Third was Catharine
Evans’ MOJITO, sailing one of her best overall regattas to date, taking
20th overall and was 2nd women’s skipper. Of note, third women’s
skipper was Amy Neill’s NITEMARE and she also took 4th overall in
Corinthians. In fact, Amy’s 11-11 performance on the last day was
better than 80% of the top 15 boats!After the races, Mauricio Santa Cruz, the skipper of the winning Brazilian BRUSCHETTA team, commented, “The racing was very good with all kinds of winds. Four boats could have won today, but my crew did an excellent job in difficult conditions with prevailing winds coming from the north. We are very happy to have won in Miami and I guess Brazilians do love this City!”
Julian Fernandez Neckelmann from Mexico, skipper of FLOJITO Y COOPERANDO, added, “We will be back, we feel good about the result and about the week spent here. It was good all around; good race committee, competition and organization!!” Sailing Photos by Cory Silken and John Payne
Bacardi Miami Sailing Week YouTube video
Day 4- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2nwGLJAGaE
Day 5- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7qNuMkvroU
Day 6- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkGzFjU5388
Music Highlights- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py1EZVpEfvE
For more BACARDI Miami Sailing Week information
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