Wet and Wild on Day Two at Bacardi Winter Series in Miami
Blustery conditions on the second day of racing at Bacardi Winter Series Event 2, Saturday, January 28, upped the ante with 15-22 knots sweeping through the racetrack.
It was a beautiful day on Biscayne Bay, with an incredible breeze and choppy sea guaranteeing thrilling racing for three more races in the Melges 24 Class. The mainly South breeze went right a bit for the last race, with the Race Committee changing and lengthening the course.
The discard after race 6 for the Melges 24 fleet saw a few shifts in the leaderboard but no change in the event leader — Andrea Pozzi’s ‘Bombarda’ of Italy holds firm at the end of Day 2.
Teams representing Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and the USA are relishing the conditions in Miami, with one more day of racing on Sunday and more of the same weather expected.
Overnight leaders ‘Bombarda’ have again been relentless in their teamwork and pace, scoring another two race wins today to control the leaderboard. Michael Goldfarb’s ‘WarCanoe’ nipped past them in race 5 and edged into the top three by the end of the day, on tiebreak over Bruce Ayres’ ‘Monsoon’ in fourth. Moving up one from yesterday’s third place is ‘Pacific Yankee’ with Marcus Eagan stepping in to helm.
Pozzi, helm of ‘Bombarda’ said, “It is a fantastic spot Miami. Today and yesterday were incredible, and for me incredible results. It is a good team, we are friends. Tomorrow is another day.”
The ‘Bombarda’ team have switched their game considerably, since finishing 10th at the opening event of the Bacardi Winter Series 1 in December 2022.
Commenting on the key to their success, coach Giulio Desiderato laughed, saying, “We are old but gold!”
Desiderato added, “We will see if we can perform in the same way. As a team, we sailed a lot in the past altogether and ‘Bombarda’ is one of the historical teams of the Melges 24. We stopped for a couple of years, but we worked a lot together so now we are starting again but of course we carry what we did in the past.
“Having fun is one of the keys to success. We are a group of friends, so we are having a good time, not only on the water sailing but spending time here in Miami.”
Strong initial pace from Peter McClennen’s ‘Gamecock’ team saw them dominate the early stages of races 4 and 5, but both times faltered to allow others to pass on the downwind legs.
Melges 24 Provisional Top 5 results – after 6 races
1. Andrea Pozzi / Carlo Zermini / Matteo Ivaldi / Stefano Ciampalini / Nicolas Dal Ferro (ITA 830) - 7 pts
2. Marcus Eagan / Nic Asher / Charlie Smythe / Kyle Navin / Mark Ivey (USA 865) - 14 pts
3. Michael Goldfarb / Chris Rast / Jonny Goldsberry / Matteo Ramian / Chris Watters (USA 825) - 16 pts
4. Bruce Ayres / Tomas Dietrich / Edward Hackney / Chelsea Simms / Jeremy Wilmot (USA 851) - 16 pts
5. Peter Duncan / Victor Diaz de Leon / Norman Berge / Morgan Trubovich / Erik Shampain (USA 829) - 20 pts
Full Results