2010 Bacardi Cup

Reports By Tom Londrigan

DAY ONE AND TWO REPORT

The Bacardi Cup was originally raced in Havana, Cuba. World events forced the event to move to Miami, Florida. Maybe the event will return to Cuba, but this year it takes on a differnet complexion. The event is coinciding with Miami Race Week, sponsored by Bacardi. What does this mean? Multiple fleets and some other sites for social events outside of the Coral Reef Yacht Club; that is about the difference Is Coral Reef Yacht Club on the road to be forgotten, will the event return to Cuba, will it transofrm into something else? Only time will tell. Nothing is permanent. We are all here for a very short time, we are all eventually fertilizer, breaking up our years on this earth sitting on a boat pulling stirngs, soaking up salt water, and thinking about the next race.
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84 star boats arrived for the 83rd Bacardi Cup. Norway, Bermuda, Swizerland, Sweden, Portugual, Germany, the United States, Bahamas, Great Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Italy, Puerto Rico (a US territiory), Brazil, and of course, CANADA. Who could ever forget the Canadians... so polite. This year we enjoy at least 10 Canadian teams and my team mate, Steve Cutting, is Canadian as well. What does this mean? Not sure, but "out" is pronounced "oot" and if I groan in anguish, Steve quietely says, "agreed."

This week marks one of the first impact of the P-Star. The P-Star has been on the scene for the last couple of years. The P-Star is a design by Marc "foc-dude" Pickel. He built the first couple of boats in Germany but its performance was recognized last year at The Bacardi Cup. One of our favorite star sailors, Jon VaderMolen raced the P-Star with Geoff Ewenson and finished 6th overall. Since then, Jon and Marc Pickel have been toikling away in the cold and dark of western Michigan trying to build the first american starboat in a decade. The result is asthetically pleasing, solidlly built, and fast. Did I mention fast?

As a friend of Jon, I must say that I am proud of his hard work and determination.

Jon built two for other racers and scambled to build a boat for himself in time for his favorite event, the Bacardi Cup. He arrived the evening before the first race, put the rig up and was dropping the boat in the water for the first time when out of the blue, my borther Joe Londrigan arrived by cab in street clothes. Joe strolled to the hoist to see the boat. Jon turned and saw Joe while the boat slid into the Bay and asked Joe to go on the water with him before the sun set. How romantic. An hour later Joe stepped off the boat and directly into a cab for the airport, not all of us live like Joe.

The first race was sailed in about 6 knots. The wind orignated form 140 degrees on the compass, the tide was making its way in, the moon was making its gravitational impact all afternoon. We decided to start in the middle of the line and then play it by ear. First start, general recall. Hit reset. Second start, Dr. Tony Hermann and Chris Neilson experimented with some unconventional techniques, I groaned in anguish. Steve agreed.

We started clean nonetheless, Tony and Chris were premature starters and hit the showers. Up the leg, the crews were sitting on the high side of the boat sunning their round little faces and thinking of motorcyles and beer. The left side was the "winning side" and those on the right never saw the front of the fleet. Multiple sailors scanned the chalkbaord at the weather mark and peeled off, their day was over, they started to early and now their day was going to finish early too. Unfortunetly Jon VanderMolen and Geoff Ewenson had to take their new ride back to the stable.

The boats that sailed to the left upwind and then sailed to the same side downwind were rewarded. Same for the next upwind leg. Same for the final downwind leg as well. Steve and I did not choose wisely. We dropped 15 boats on the final leg and finished 41st, I groaned, Steve agreed.

Local favorite Augie Diaz won the race and Jud Smith and Brian Fatih were second. Crews slipped over the side only a couple times. We have seen one condition of sailing, light winds. We look forward to the other too, moderate and windy. We hope.

The second race brought the exact same conditions. Oh well, maybe tomorrow conditions will imporove. The wind ranged from 135 to 150 and the weather mark was set at 135. We started in the middle of the line and shot out nicely. We worked the left side with George Szabo and Jon Von Swartz. Near the layline we drove towards the mark but about 18 boats on out left hip benefited from better velocity. Geoge took a hitch back to the left and rounded third. Downwind was just like the day before and we learned our lesson, we stayed with the others. Up wind the same, more of the same off wind towards the finish and we scored a 16th. I breather a sigh of relief, Steve agreed.

Lars Grael won the race, Andy Horton was second, RIck Merriman and Phil Trinter were third and our 4th District friends Peter Wright and Nathen Quist were fourth. They were leading at the first mark.

After two races, Merriman and Trinter lead, Andy Horton and Jamie Lynne second, Will Stout and Rick Peters are third. 4th District sailors Peter Wright and Nathan Quist are 8th and Steve and I are 24th.