Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Bacardi Miami Sailing Week Preview

J70s sailing off Miami, FL
(Coconut Grove, FL)- From March 8th to 11th, J/70 teams from across the world will again be looking forward to participating in the famous Bacardi Miami Sailing Week, sailed on the pristine aquamarine waters of Biscayne Bay.  Hosting the J/70 fleet will be a combination of Coral Reef YC and Biscayne Bay YC for both on-shore social festivities as well as providing support for volunteers managing the RC and mark boats and regatta PRO.

The weather looks promising for the thirty-six J/70 teams entered from nine nations from Europe and the America’s- USA, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Italy, United Kingdom, Poland, and Norway.

The South American teams are well-represented by leading crews, including Argentina’s Pablo Despontin; Brazil’s Phil Haegler on CLOUD NINE and Harold Solberg helming VIKING; Chile’s Felipe Robles on LEXUS; and Uruguay’s Ricardo Umpierre sailing XTREME 4U from YC Punta del Este.

Several European teams will have just finished sailing the final event in YC Monaco’s Winter Series and will be winging across the Atlantic at the beginning of the week to join in for more fun-in-the-sun in Miami.  The leading European teams include Poland’s Krzysztof Krempec skippering EWA; Great Britain’s Martin Dent on JELVIS 7 and Jeremy Thorp on PHAN; Italy’s Vincenzo Onorato helming MASCALZONE LATINO and Marco Salvi on VERTIGO TOO; and Norway’s Eivind Astrup sailing yet another NORWEGIAN STEAM!

The American teams include a number of major regatta and Corinthian leaders, such as Doug Strebel’s BLACK RIVER RACING from Dallas, TX; Andrew & Melissa Fisher’s BUTTON FLY from Greenwich, CT; Chris Snow and Mary Bridgen’s COOL STORY BRO from San Francisco, CA; Al Terhune’s DAZZLER from Annapolis, MD; Bruce Golison’s MIDLIFE CRISIS from Alamitos Bay, CA; Marty Kullman’s NEW WAVE from St Petersburg, FL; Tom Bowen’s REACH AROUND from Annapolis, MD; Peter Duncan’s RELATIVE OBSCURITY from Rye, NY; John Brim’s RIMETTE from Fishers Island, NY; Pam Rose’s ROSEBUD from Miami, FL; Brian Keane’s SAVASANA from Beverly, MA; Will Welles’ SCAMP from Newport, RI; and John & Molly Baxter’s TEAM VINEYARD VINES from Riverside, CT.  That range of talent is a star-studded cast of sailors that have all posted top five performances in many races in major J/70 events.  The only question is, which teams will put it all together, avoid the regatta-crushing BFD penalty, and post high average scores to win-place-or-draw!?  For more J/70 Bacardi Miami Sailing Week information Add to Flipboard Magazine.