Andrea Pozzi’s Italian crew on ‘Bombarda’ won the race 1 start and accelerated away to set the pace around the track with virtually no look-back. Second to Bruce Ayres’ team on ‘Monsoon’ and third to Michael Goldfarb’s ‘WarCanoe’.

The three-day Bacardi Winter Series Event 2 opened today, Friday, January 27, on Biscayne Bay, Miami, in thrilling conditions.

A fresh breeze, averaging 15 knots across the day and gusts above it, ensured on time starts, with fast and high energy racing for the Melges 24 fleet.

Three windward/leeward races saw Andrea Pozzi’s ‘Bombarda’ out front in the Melges 24 and Robert Hughes on ‘Heartbreaker’ dominate the J/70. Six more races are scheduled over the weekend. For the 69F a superb victory to Antigua ‘Rhum Runners’ from an intense six races.

Friday morning got underway with a weather briefing hosted by Quantum Sails in partnership with Sail22 and SailFlow, and smiles on teams’ faces in anticipation of wavy planing conditions and a steady breeze.

Hosted at Shake-A-Leg-Miami, the Bacardi Winter Series enjoys the same legendary hospitality as every Bacardi event, with post-race cocktails and shoreside fun for all.

For race 2, Drew Freides’ well-rehearsed crew on ‘Pacific Yankee’ bucked off their 7th place from the opening race and led to the windward mark, pursued by ‘Monsoon’, ‘Nefeli’, ‘Gamecock’ and ‘Team Barbarians’. ‘Pacific Yankee’, who won the Bacardi Winter Series Event 1, looked good downwind until a mistake left them with a ripped kite on the takedown which almost proved costly. Disaster too for Stuart Simpson‘s ‘Team Barbarians’ who lost their rig, along with a few other Melges 24 mark rounding wipeouts, as the 17-22 knot breeze kept the racing super edgy. The breeze was fairly consistent, so it was all about speed.

‘Pacific Yankee’ swiftly prepared their back-up kite for the second downwind, losing no pace to win by an impressive margin. With two races down, a 1,3 scorecard from ‘Bombarda’ kept the team in first overall with ‘Nefeli’ in second and ‘Pacific Yankee’ in third, and on tie-break with the teams placed through to 6th.

For race 3 ‘Bombarda’ bounced back to claim another win, pushed by ‘Nefeli’ in second and ‘Pacific Yankee’ in third, with the overall lead still in the hands of ‘Bombarda’.

Complimenting the Italians’ 1,3,1 performance, Mike Buckley, crew on 7th placed ‘Lucky Dog’ said, “The Italians were on fire today, especially downwind, finding the breeze and connecting the puffs. Yeah, they put on a show!” After three races, seven different Melges 24 teams had punched their way through the fleet to claim a top 5 finish, and there is plenty more to unfold over the next six races.

Melges 24 Provisional Top 5 results – after 3 races
1. Andrea Pozzi / Carlo Zermini / Matteo Ivaldi / Stefano Ciampalini / Nicolas Dal Ferro (ITA 830) - 5 pts
2. Peter Karrié / Alessandro Franci / Niccolò Bianchi / Alessandro Saettone / Saverio Cigliano (GER 673) - 9 pts
3. Drew Freides / Nic Asher / Charlie Smythe / Kyle Navin / Mark Ivey (USA 865) - 11 pts
4. Bruce Ayres / Tomas Dietrich / Edward Hackney / Chelsea Simms / Jeremy Wilmot (USA 851) - 12 pts
5. Michael Goldfarb / Chris Rast / Jonny Goldsberry / Matteo Ramian / Chris Watters (USA 825) - 16 pts
Full Results