Bacardi Cup – Race 3

Short story. We got 8th moved up to 4th overall. More Later.

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Bacardi Cup – Race 2

Another beautiful day on Biscayne Bay. Sunny and 80 degrees with a light Southeasterly breeze. Plenty of sunburns for everyone.

We had a decent result finishing 10th. It was huge recovery after a not-so-flash start and a 30th place at the first mark.

After one general recall, the race committee hoisted the black flag for the second start. When the black flag is up, if you are over the line within one minute of the starting signal, you are disqualified from the race. So it is prudent to be conservative. Maybe we were a bit too conservative and therefore we were at the back of the pack coming off the line. A few boats were caught out at the start.

The course today was a simple, four leg, windward-leeward course – 8 miles in total. The conditions were 7-10 knots from 110 degrees. Fairly flat sea. The standard rules of Biscayne Bay don?t seem to be applying so far this week. The right side of the course has be unusually good. That keeps the course more open and there is more shuffling of positions.

The race was won by Italian Lucio Boggi, with Peter Bromby of Bermuda finishing second and Peter Wright of Chicago in third. Many of the top boats yesterday had bad results today. It is tough out there.

The upshot of the redress claims in yesterday’s first race was that the jury gave redress to those who complained. Almost everyone lost something in the confusion; but only four boats filed for redress. I just figured the race was going to be thrown out, but I was wrong. About four people complained, one of them being Peter Bromby of Bermuda who had a great race today finishing second. So the four boats who filed for redress will receive the average of their scores for that first race, making it a bit difficult to calculate the scores as their scores will be a moving average every day.

Austin and I are pretty pleased with our speed in this light air. We are very light in our crew weight, about 15 kilos under the Class Rule. Here at the Bacardi Cup, the class weight rule doesn’t apply so there are some teams here that outweigh us by 125 pounds. Hopefully, it won’t blow too hard.

I think tomorrow’s forecast is still for fairly light breeze.

For complete results go to: www.bacardicup.com

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Bacardi Cup – Race 1

The first thing to say is that the weather down here is perfect: 8-12 knots of wind from the Southeast and 80 degrees. It doesn’t get better than this anywhere.

Sailing here at the 82nd edition of the Bacardi Cup marks my return to the Star Class after a four year absence. I am fortunate to have Austin Sperry crewing for me who was the US Olympic crew in the Star Class in Beijing last summer. We are a bit light in terms of weight, so the forecasted light to moderate winds is fine with us.

The 65 Star boats headed out to the race track this morning for a 1200 start. Everyone was scrambling a bit as the time changed last night and robbed everyone of an hour of sleep.

Once out on the track on Biscayne Bay, it was perfect Star weather. The fleet raced a 10 mile, 5 leg, windward/leeward course. There was confusion at the start as the main race committee vessel at the starboard end of the line signaled an individual recall while a committee boat at the port end of the line raced across the bows of the fleet in what appeared to be a general recall. This boat actually raced back across the bows of the fleet a second time. Some competitors went back to the starting area, most stopped sailing, but the main race committee never signaled a general recall and they thought it was a race.

Needless to say, it was more than a bit confusing and the jury is going to decide if we even had a race today.

As for the race, once we realized we were racing, we had a decent day. Without going through all the details, we rounded the first mark about 22nd had a great first run and second windward leg, going fast and the right way to round the second windward mark about 10th.

We went too far into one corner on the second run and lost a few boats and a lot of distance to the leaders. We went ok up the last beat and finished 11th.

All in all, Austin and I thought we were going pretty well which was good news as yesterday, in training, we were not. I read my notes from the 2004 Olympic trials that were sailed on this very course and we made some rather major changes to our mast setup for today. So that is all good.

George Szabo and Rick Peters of San Diego won the race. The Bacardi Cup is an institution in the Star Class. Originally sailing in Havana, it has been raced out of the Coral Reef Yacht Club, in Coconut Grove, since 1958. It is a six race championship. Once five races have been completed, each competitor can discard their worst score.

Tomorrow’s forecast is 8-12 again from the southeast. More sun!

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Les Voiles de St. Tropez

Not a bad day for the Moneypenny. We think we beat Container, so that we put us ahead of her for the week. Numbers and Ran beat us for sure.

After a lengthy postponement ashore, the fleet headed out for a pleasant race. By 1300 the wind had moderated to 12 knots and we sailed a relatively short race of approximately 12 miles.

It was good that the fleet was able to get out for one last race. With several hundred boats of all types and vintages, the Voiles de St. Tropez is as much a festival of sailing as it is a race.

Shortly after finishing half the crew got off Moneypenny and half of us stayed onboard. We are just passing Cap de Antibes right now, the sun is setting, after a very fast and enjoyable spinnaker run to the east. Deliveries don’t get any easier than this.

So the Middle Sea Race is next for Moneypenny, with the start in Valetta, Malta on October 18th. I will not be in Malta with Moneypenny as I will be racing on El Desafio in the TP 52 World Championship in Lanzarote.

All the best from the Cote d’ Azur.

The results for this regatta can be found at www.snst.org

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Les Voiles de St. Tropez

No racing today. Mistral was in strong. 52 knots top wind speed! No one left the harbor.

The forecast is for this to moderate tomorrow and hopefully be raceable.

We will see.

I had a very nice dinner with my French cousins last night in Mougins, which is a very charming town just inland of Cannes.

Tonight is Moneypenny owner Jim Swartz’s birthday party. The cooks are preparing something special.

The results for this regatta can be found at www.snst.org

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Les Voiles de St. Tropez

We had an email blackout at our house over the past 24 hours and somehow my Blackberry went down at the same time. Blackberry is back up now so I am writing this from the boat.

Anyway, yesterday was a black day for us onboard Moneypenny as we were black flagged at the start.

Today was better in that when the wind got squirley, we played through and passed Container. Numbers still is very fast and probably won the race.

So we were 3rd or 4th today and hoping for at least one more race so we can discard our black flag of yesterday.

The temperature has warmed up a bit and the croissants are still good.

Tomorrow is a lay day with racing resuming Friday. The forecast for Friday is for a Mistral, so it should be pretty breezy.

The results for this regatta can be found at www.snst.org

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Les Voiles de St. Tropez

Today was the first race day here in St. Tropez. It is an amazing collection of boats here from classics like the J-boat Velsheda to super modern Wally’s like Essence with her 170 foot mast.

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Rolex Maxi Worlds – Day 5

No wind. No race.

Unfortunate situation. So the results don’t change. Moneypenny third, Numbers first and Rosebud second in the Mini Maxi Class.

Next stop for this fleet is St. Tropez at the end of September.

For me, I will be back in the TP 52 with El Desafio on September 15 for the last regatta of the Med Cup Circuit in Portimao, Portugal.

Good Sailing.

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Rolex Maxi Worlds – Day 4

A short note tonight as a lot is going on.

A good day for Moneypenny with a second place. Numbers is pretty much untouchable and Rosebud was over the start line early and had to return.

Tomorrow will be the fight for second between Rosebud and us, in the 18 boat Mini Maxi class. One race is scheduled at 11:30.

Forecast is for 12 knots from the Southeast.

For complete results in all classes go to www.yccsmaxi.com

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Rolex Maxi Worlds – Day 3

The wind was in today and the Mini Maxi fleet which contains Moneypenny, Numbers and Rosebud, raced two windward leeward courses. There are 18 boats in the Mini Maxi class in total and with the wind reaching 22 knots, we were flying downwind. The other fleets did another coastal race.

The sad news of the day was that a crew member was seriously injured on Alegra, a Mills 68 from Great Britain. It seems that he got a halyard around his leg just as the jammer that was holding the halyard broke. He is in surgery at the moment se we are all saying a prayer for him.

In the first race of the day, Rosebud sailed an excellent first downwind leg, planning by Numbers and taking the lead which the never relinquished.

In the second race, Numbers led wire to wire. We managed a third in each race.

The good news is that we had no damage and no injuries. The boats were seriously loaded up and that is always scary.

Tomorrow the racing will start at 1400 so most likely one race and probably a Coastal for all fleets.

For complete results in all classes go to www.yccsmaxi.com

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