Thursday, February 6, 2020

NINE Shreds J/70 Bacardi Winter Series II

J/70s sailing off Miami, Florida
Segal Tops Corinthians Division
(Miami, FL)- As the second Act of the 2019/2020 Bacardi Invitational Winter Series unfolded last weekend, many of the world’s top J/70 teams resumed their battle for supremacy on the waters of Biscayne Bay in Miami. Twenty-five teams came from Brazil, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, and the USA. Despite the light to medium winds and a hyper-aggressive fleet on the starting line, the six windward/leeward races that were scheduled were completed.

Winning their first major J/70 regatta was Oivind Lorentzen's NINE crew from the greater New York area. His crew included Ian Coleman, David Shreiner, and the immensely talented Lucas Calabrese from Buenos Aires, Argentina (an Olympic Silver Medallist in the 470 class). Giving the NINE team moments of anxiety all weekend-long was past J/70 World Champion Joel Ronning and his crew on CATAPULT (Victor Diaz de Leon, Patrick Wilson, and Chris Stocke); they finished five points back to take the silver. The final spot on the podium was determined on a tie-breaker at 25 points each.  Winning on countback to take the bronze was long-time Chicago sailor John Heaton on EMPEIRIA with crew of Will Felder, Zeke Horowitz, and Zach Mason. Losing the tie-breaker to take fourth was another talented Chicago-based team- Pamela Rose's ROSEBUD with Goncalo Ribiero, Willem van Waay, and Bernardo Freitas. In fifth place was Bruno Pasquinelli's STAMPEDE from Fort Worth Boat Club in Texas; his team featured two brother who were both Olympic Medallists- Jonathan and Charlie McKee from Seattle, Washington- and Orrin Star.

Taking the Corinthians Division by a large margin was Zach Segal's USA 1154 with crew of Ashton Hamerlin, Enrique Quintero, and Peit Van Os. Twelve points back in second place was Doug Weitz's AGENT 99 with team of Yumio Dornberg, Brian O'Mahony, and Paul Zambriski. Another thirteen points in arrears to take the bronze was the Brazilian team on MANCHA NEGRA, skippered by Pedro Camargo with crew of Eduardo Penido and Danilo Santana.  For more Bacardi J/70 Winter Series sailing and scoring information Add to Flipboard Magazine.