Light and Shifty on Biscayne Bay for Melges 24s
March 7, 2025 - Miami, Fl. USA - On the penultimate day of racing at the 98th Bacardi Cup and Bacardi Invitational Regatta, Biscayne Bay demonstrated all the reasons why sailing is a thinking person’s sport. With light and shifty breezes, both teams and the Race Committee were kept on their toes.
The Race Committee made an early decision to postpone all fleets ashore as they waited for the wind to fill in. Today separated the best from the rest, requiring a lot of transitions in response to the changing breeze. Perfectly executed team plays saw the frontrunners working together to dominate the course, while across all fleets new teams staked their names on the race wins.
Despite the weather challenges, camaraderie remains at the heart of the event. As Brian Kamilar, tactician on the Melges 24 Zingara, put it, “Even on a light air, tough day like today, everyone is smiling, waving and having a good time. Yes, there’s long waits but everyone is super enjoying it. Friendship is so big here. This is the marquee event of the year. Everyone needs to be here doing this every year.”
Geoff Fargo’s team on Sentinel won race 4 and edge up to fourth overall. However, it is Peter-David Karrié’s Nefeli who continues to lead the pack, holding firm despite a fifth-place finish today.
Points are super close, but there can be no doubt Karrie is the standout favourite to win the event and secure the Bacardi Winter Series title. Karrié, who celebrated his first Bacardi event win at BWS2 in January, his first since debuting at Bacardi events in 2019, is now on the brink of another milestone.
Reflecting on the long day, Karrié praised the race management team. “The PRO did a really great job, really tried to get this one race in and it was perfectly managed. It was tricky for us with this light wind and shifty, but it was a fair race, and we managed a fifth.”
Behind Karrie was Vladimir Prosikhin’s Nika 860 made a strong move up the leaderboard, leapfrogging Richard Reid’s Zingara after a second-place finish compared to 6th for Reid. A third-place finish for Harry Melges IV’s team on Zenda Express promotes them to fifth overall.
“Vladimir is doing really well,” complimented Karrié. “He is a nice guy, I just met him here. It is good that we have new teams in the class, and such strong team like the ‘Nika’ team is always a pleasure.”