This weekend opened the Star season in Miami. We had approximately 40 boats for what is normally a lo-key weekend regatta due to the build up for the US Olympic Trials which will be held here in March. We were fortunate with the conditions with winds of 10-15 knots both days from the East. This wind was coming directly over the top of Key Biscayne so it was quite shifty and puffy.
Peter Bromby of Bermuda sailed consistently well to win the regatta and Howie Scheibler/Will Stout USA sailed almost as well.
These two teams were almost always going the right way in fairly unpredictable conditions.
Behind them were the two Europeans teams of Neelman/??? NED and Pickle/Kolb GER. Mark Reynolds and Andy Lovell were fifth and I believe Phil and I were sixth.
We had a frustrating weekend. It seemed like we were always on the wrong side of the course on the first leg. We would then spend the rest of the race trying to catch up. Our speed was generally pretty good but I was horrible at picking the correct side. In the last race we were over early at the start and disqaulified for that.
As Phil said, everything went our way in SF so we were paying for that. Let’s hope that’s it.
Next sailing down here is in three weeks. We will train with other teams for 8 days and also the weekend of December 5-6 is an regatta, the Commodores Cup.