Another massive day of energy and perfect sailing on a sunny Biscayne Bay for teams racing at the 96th Bacardi Cup and Bacardi Invitational Regatta. The usual shifty breeze was around 10-12 knots from the south east, with plenty of race track nuances.

A game changer of a day for some and still a mountain to climb for others as tomorrow, Saturday, March 11, marks the final fight for the podium. Who will be brave enough to take the risks where required?

Three races ended with all change in the Melges 24 leader board as Drew Freides’ ‘Pacific Yankee’ team step into the lead from a 3,1,11 scorecard. This will be a battle to the end with plenty of teams relishing the thrill of being in the podium mix.

“Stressful, but reasonably successful,” said a straight talking Freides on the team’s day, before adding, “It has been a battle!

“Peter Duncan and their team have been right at our throats the entire time, as has Brian Porter and Harry, Bruce Ayres, everybody. It has just been a fight every race. It has been a long day. So essentially, we are ahead by a measly 1 point, which basically means we are even with two races to go, so it will all happen tomorrow.”

‘Pacific Yankee’ is always in the running at every regatta, which Freides put down to having the best team. Commenting on the racing so far, Freides continued, “It has been perfect. The conditions have been phenomenal, the race committee has done a great job. It has been shifty, it has been challenging. Big holes, big puffs keeping us on our toes.”

In the opening race 4, Alessandro Rombelli’s ‘STIG’ led from start to finish to take the win. Impressive form from the Corinthian team on ‘3 & ½ Men’ who finished fourth, to make it the best Corinthian team finish of the series so far.

In race 5, the teams who started left made the gains, with the win to ‘Pacific Yankee’, who opted to go far left, 2nd to ‘Full Throttle’ and third to ‘Raza Mixta’. Most of the same teams opted to go right for race 6, but the judgement saw them unravel and different teams take the line glory, with only ‘Full Throttle’ repeating their earlier form.

After six races, Megan Ratliff’s ‘Decorum’ maintains the lead in the Corinthian division, but clearly they are the hunted. 2022 Corinthian U.S. National Champion Steve Suddath on ‘3 1/2 Men’ advanced in the standings on Friday as did Norway’s Jan Frederik Dyvi’s ‘Team RRH’.

Saturday, the final day of racing is shaping up to be a major showdown.

TOP FIVE OVERALL RESULTS (Preliminary, After Six Races, One Discard)
1. Drew Freides/Nic Asher/Charlie Smythe/Alec Anderson/Mark Ivey (USA) - 14 pts
2. Peter Duncan/Victor Diaz de Leon/Patrick Wilson/Morgan Trubovich/Erik Shampain (USA) - 15 pts
3. Brian Porter/RJ Porter/Bri Porter/Matt Woodworth (USA) - 22 pts
4. Bruce Ayres/Thomas Dietrich/Edward Hackney/Chelsea Simms/Jeremy Wilmot (USA) - 31 pts
5. Richard Reid/Brian Kamilar/Ian Sloan/Billy Gooderham/Madelin Gill (CAN) – 31 pts
View Full Results