Early lead for Norwegians

After a lively first day of racing for the Stars at the Bacardi Cup

The Norwegian sailing team of Eivind Melleby and crew Petter Pederson finished first in day one of sailing Sunday at the 81st Annual Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta on the waters of Biscayne Bay, near Miami.

Melleby and Pederson finished a boat length ahead of Brazil’s Alan Adler, the 1989 Star Class World Champion, who sails this week with crew Ricardo Ermel. Adler/Ermel rounded all four marks in first place before losing cover to the Norwegians on the race’s final beat. Great Britain’s Iain Percy, the 2002 Star World Champion, and his crew Andrew Simpson, finished third.

Winds in excess of 15 knots forced two general recalls before the race’s eventual start; and three teams, including 2008 Rolex Miami OCR Champion Xavier Rohart
and crew Pascal Rambeau, were black-flagged and disqualified for crossing the line early. An early tack along the right side of the course helped Adler/Ermel to the lead at each of the four marks, followed closely by Melleby/Pederson. Both teams continued to favor the right side throughout the race and rode favorable winds to extend their lead over the rest of the fleet, before Melleby took the win.

“Our strategy was to play it safe by going right on the first beat, and the further right we went, it got better and better,” said Melleby, who sails this year in only his second Bacardi Cup. “We were in a big fight on the final beat and were able to keep clear of
Adler so that he could not cover us. We’re very happy with today’s result and we’re in good form, but it’s a long regatta. All the best sailors in the world are here this week.”

The110 teams representing 26 countries are competing in the six-day regatta, which is widely regarded as one of the best and most competitive Star Class events in
the world.

The Norwegian duo bested a fleet that included Peter Bromby, one of most acclaimed Bermudian sailors of all-time and a two-time Bacardi Cup champion; George
Szabo, former North American champion in both the Star and Laser classes; 2006 Bacardi Cup Champions and U.S. Olympic hopefuls John Dane and crew Austin Sperry.

Defending Bacardi Cup Champion New Zealander Hamish Pepper and crew Ed Peel finished 19th Sunday with five races to go in the regatta.

The Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta is co-hosted by the Coral Reef Yacht Club and the U.S. Sailing Center, both based in Coconut Grove, and is sponsored by
Bacardi USA Inc.

Results:

Pos	Boat	Helm	Crew	Tot
1	NOR 8234	Melleby Eivind	Pedersen Petter	1
2	BRA 8337	Adler Alan	SEIFERT RONALD	2
3	GER 8345	Percy Iain	Simpson Andrew	3
4	BRA 8255	SCHEIDT ROBERT	PRADA BRUNO	4
5	AUT 8226	Spitzauer Hans	Nehammer Christian	5
6	BER 8272	Bromby Peter	White Lee	6
7	BRA 8284	GRAEL LARS	JORDÁO MARCELO	7
8	IRL 8254	O'Connell Maurice	Cooke Ben	8
9	USA 8285	Diaz Augie	Trinter Phil	9
10	USA 8320	Reynolds Mark	Gale Jamie	10
11	POL 8209	Kusznierewicz Mateusz	Zycki Dominik	11
12	POR 8309	Domingos Afonso	Santos Bernardo	12
13	AUS 8214	Murray Iain	Palfrey Andrew	13
14	IRL 8261	O'Leary Peter	Milne Stephen	14
15	SUI 8296	Marazzi Flavio	De Maria Enrico	15
16	ITA 8266	Negri Diego	Viale Luigi	16
17	USA 8312	Merriman Rick	Sharp Brian	17
18	ITA 8281	Modena Luca	Lambertenghi Sergio	18
19	NZL 8187	PEPPER Hamish	Peel Ed	19
20	USA 8230	DANE John	Sperry Austin	20
21	USA 8136	Filter Henry	Wagner Will	21
22	ITA 8180	Bruni Francesco	NOBILI Gilberto	22
23	ITA 8313	Barovier Alberto	Colaninno Nando	23
24	FIN 8094	MAKILA Jali	Heinonen Erkki	24
25	USA 8176	Lidecis Erik	Marzahl Michael	25
26	USA 7986	Labandeira Julio	Chernobilsky Nicolas	26
27	USA 8303	Macdonald Andy	Fatih Brian	27
28	BRA 8283	Brun Gastao	Kraiczyk Fabio	28
29	USA 8306	Buckingham Jim	Monroe Eric	29
30	UKR 8314	GUREYEV Vasyl	KOROTKOV Volodymyr	30
31	ARG 7907	MacGowan Fabian	ENGELHARD Federico	31
32	JPN 8144	SUZUKI Kunio	WadaDaichi	32
33	GER 8109	Stanjek Robert	Koy Markus	33
34	ITA 8332	Chieffi Enrico	Galli Massimo	34
35	ESP 7581	Bermudez Roberto	Ferreira Marcelo	35
36	ARG 7	Rigoni Alejo	Gonzalez Gustavo	36
37	HUN 8166	Tenke Tibor	Bendicsek Jozsef	37
38	GER 8213	Wilhelm Peer	Hollweg Nils	38
39	ITA 8290	Santoni Silvio	Natucci Dodo	39
40	RUS 8305	Shevtsov Sergey	Sadchikov Roman	40
41	USA 8195	Maccausland John	Murphy Kevin	41
42	USA 8218	Serinis Aaron	Schofield Bob	42
43	BAH 8265	Kelly Steven	Bill Holowesko	43
44	USA 8043	Manderson John	GOTSULYAK Roman	44
45	SUI 8009	Gautschi Christoph	Gouda Alex	45
46	CHI 8319	Zuazola Rodrigo	Riegel Robert	46
47	USA 8264	McChesney Peter	Zwingelberg Shane	47
48	USA 8269	Kohlhas Jock	Scott Larry	48
49	GBR 7601	Hicks Michael	Hicks Patrick	49
50	BRA 8282	PASCOLATO ALESSANDRO	Boening Henry	50
51	SUI 7990	Stegmeier Daniel	Stegmeier Beat	51
52	GER 8130	Voigt Henning	Dirk Steve	52
53	USA 8215	Allen Bill	Hatfield Bruce	53
54	SUI 8085	Zimmerman Lorenz	Mutti Michael	54
55	USA 8253	Brethorst Rick	Anderson Scott	55
56	CRO 8280	Lovrovic Dan	Lovrovic Sr Marin	56
57	ITA 8344	Tamburini Antonio	Ricci Renzo	57
58	SWE 7978	Krook Ingvar	Hasselgren Henrik	58
59	ARG 8169	Zanetti Alberto	Warburg Gustavo	59
60	USA 8317	Vandermolen Jon	Ticknor Steve	60
61	UKR 8096			61
62	ARG 8239	Pendola Martin	Engelhard Jaun Pablo	62
63	CAN 8143	Cramer Brian	Bjorn Tyler	63
64	CAN 7784	Li Hongquan	Wang He	64
65	ITA 8156	Irrera Renato	Corrado Cristaldini	65
66	UKR 8205	Datsenko Kostyantin	Yevseyenko Oleksandr	66
67	USA 8087	McNeilKevin		67
68	GER 8311	Hampe Axel	Conrads Chris	68
69	BRA 8300	FICKER PETER	Lopes Arthur	69
70	USA 8222	Gardner Ed	Gardner Kip	70
71	USA 8270	Bonanni Claude	Burgess Rick	71
72	ITA 8164	Chinca Valerio	Ciano Massimo	72
73	GER 7865	Lehnert Stefan	Menning Peter	73
74	USA 7713	Fransen Ben	Coleman Ian	74
75	USA 8245	Zambella Joe	Morey Ed	75
76	NED 8103	Bierman Guus	Skinner Duncan	76
77	USA 8036	Rickard Jack	Farrier Tom	77
78	CAN 7474	Hendershot Will	Vranderick Alain	78
79	SUI 8329	Wyss Daniel	Joss Urs	79
80	GER 7750	Burmester Jens	Mehlen Markus	80
81	USA 8336	Fields Bill	Rogers Chris	81
82	USA 7814	Donald Keith	Hardin Chris	82
83	GER 8016	Rauch Hubert	Kling Felix	83
84	USA 8227	Gudat Patrick	Smith Mark	84
85	GER 7866	Thomsen Dierk	Jensen Darin	85
86	CAN 7520	Gagnon Andre	Despres Daniel	86
87	USA 8083	Chiarella John	Carlson Bob	87
88	USA 8132	De La Villehuchet Thierry	Gesing	88
89	ITA 7562	Bettarini Stefano	Giachetti Alessandro	89
90	USA 7370	Emmet Rob	Amlong Paul	90
91	USA 8063	Collins Bert	Wilson Kris	91
92	USA 8207	Sperry Brooks	Contaras Robert	92
93	GER 7946	Weiler Hermann	Schmid Thomas	93
94	USA 7786	Alt Karen	Perkins Rowan	94
95	GER 7863	Meyer Klaus	Boguhn Lutz	95
96	AUT 8021	Wirth Harald	Pickering Jim	96
97	CHI 8181	Rusowsky Fernando	Gimeno Vincente Pablo	97
98	USA 7934	Von Schwarz Karl	Beigel-vosbury Barbara	98
99	USA 7970	Hopkins Sam	Kaplan Bart	99
100	USA 7902	Gunther Stephen	Day Tom	100
101	USA 7851	Phinney Mike	Balmert Brad	101
102	USA 7828	Pro Joseph	Pro Nicolaus	102
103	USA 8235	Whipple Larry	Bjorn Kai	119
103	ITA 8341	Boggi Lucio	Laporta Manuel	119
103	USA 8157	Anosov Arthur	Dolan Mark	119
103	ESP 8297	Van Der Ploeg Jose Maria	RiveroFernandez Rodriguez	119
103	AUT 8216	Tomasini-Grinover Roberto	Bahr Gunnar	119
103	GER 7816	Girr Fritz	HASCHE Marko	119
103	USA 8061	Jennings Jack	Rehe Mike	119
103	USA 8159	Proctor Ched	Semler Matt	119
103	GER 8256	Merkelbach Hubert	Bartel Gerrit	119
103	FRA 8107	Rohart Xavier	Rambeau Pascal	119
103	CAN 8045	Passmore Mark	Bunner Ivan	119
103	NZL 8061	Lord Rohan	Addy Miles	119
103	USA 8015	Londrigan Patrick	Burgandy Ron	119
103	USA 8273	Szabo George	Peters Rick	119
103	CRO 8339	Lovrovic Jr Marin	Mikulicic Sinsa	119
103	USA 8077	Londrigan Tom Jr	Hall Stewart	119