Star Western Hemisphere Championship 2015

John Payne Photo

Coconut Grove

The Stars are back on Biscayne Bay for the last time this season.  The “Spring Championship” is being hosted by Biscayne Bay Yacht Club.  7 races are scheduled Through Sunday.

Today we had the first two races in 7-9 knots from the southeast.  These are perfect Star boat conditions. However, it was extremely hot and humid today.

There are 39 teams from 8 countries competing here. The 2016 World Championship will be held on Biscayne Bay at this exact time so this regatta is a good one for anyone thinking ahead to next year.

In the first race today, John MacCausland and his crew Bruno Prada worked the left side up the first windward leg and had a nice lead at the first mark.  They extended on every leg and won easily. Larry Whipple and Austin Sperry were second with Hubert Merklebach and Makcus Koy in third.  Marcus is the current world champion crew.

Brian and I had a good first leg, rounding the first mark about 8th but lost 20 boats in the firs downwind.  After rounding the leeward mark, Brian noticed we had a plastic bag on our keel.  We got it off and moved up a bit to 23rd but still not a great race.

In the second race, Brian and I got off to a good start and played 4 very quick wind shifts in the first 5 minutes of the race to jump out to a 100 meter lead.  We led the whole way around and won the race.  The Brazilian team of Marcelo Fuchs Ronald Seifert finished second and pressed us a bit downwind as we are still struggling with our speed there. The two of us had a big lead over the rest of the fleet. Lars Grael and Samuel Conclaves sailed well to finish third.

Tomorrows forecast is for a bit more wind, maybe up to 12 knots from the southeast.

For complete results go to: http://www.yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=1230

 

Paul