Star Bacardi Cup: Day Four

2005 Star North American champ and Quantum Sails rep George Szabo files the following report today from the Bacardi Cup in Miami, FL:

(Wednesday, March 8) This is turning into a tough week. Just when you think things are going to sort themselves out – they fall apart. Same morning routine, boat in the water, breakfast, review with the coach, get changed and then go out sailing. Sort of. As we were tied to the dock, and putting our sails up, a Star boat leaving the dock tacked onto the wrong tack and was sailing back towards the boats tied up the dock. There is not always a lot of control at slow speeds, and today, we were the target. Yup, we got a hole in the boat while still tied to the dock! We taped that one up, got the rest of the jib and then the main up, and headed for the race course. Not sure if we want to rename the boat Trauma or Drama.

The conditions started out good. 15-18 in the puffs, and relatively steady breeze. Then things began to deteriorate. There was a postponement, and during that time, the massive shifts began. 50 degrees true wind direction on the left side of the course, 80 degrees at the committee boat, and 110 on the right side. Needless to say, things didn’t settle down too well during the postponement. When the race did get off, 40 degree shifts were fairly regular up the first beat. On the second beat, the puffs were still shifting through 40 degrees, but were coming with more ferocity. Auto-tacks were seen on all sides of the race course, and more than one skipper was heard to have asked his crew, “can you get in, can you get in” after the auto-tack.

The shifts were all fine and dandy until the last beat when the 40 degree shifts went from oscillating to persistent. Yep. And we were on the wrong side of it all. Deep left corner pocket, and the wind went from 16 to 60 degrees on the starboard tack compass heading. That was bad. The guys around us that kept going after we tacked to port said the wind went another 10 degrees right for them. This big trend changed our race from the low 20’s to the mid sixties, which officially turned our last beat into a ‘meet the fleet’ leg. We got to see all sorts of people I hadn’t seen in awhile. This race now moved our overall score to the top of the second page of the results. Hmmm.

In the front of the fleet, John Dane and Austin Sperry sailed a great race, were well out in front, and have taken over the lead with a 16 point gap over the next boat before the toss is put in after Thursday’s race. Second place has race scores of 10,9,10,9. Reynold/Finnsgard, who were leading this morning, got hit with a few tough shifts and finished 27th today, moving them back to fifth. It is a difficult fleet.

Forecast for tonight is the mid week Bacardi rum and Dinner party. Tomorrow we should have 10-15 from the South. I sure hope that the shifts go away. - George Szabo


Photo by Alex Gort
The father and son-in-law tandem of John Dane (right, behind) and crew Austin Sperry of Gulfport, Mississippi, head toward the leeward mark with a commanding 10-boat-lenthe advantage over the rest of the fleet on day four of sailing at the 2006 Bacardi Cup Regatta on the waters of Biscayne Bay. With today's victory, they regain the overall lead going into the final two races of the regatta.

Day One - Day Two - Day Three - Day Four - Day Five - Day Six