Victory for Merriman/Trinter

On a final blustery mast breaking day at the Star's Bacardi Cup

Americans Rick Merriman and Phil Trinter came out on top with a first place victory on the sixth and final day of Star Class sailing at the Bacardi Cup in Miami, helping push tme to the top spot overall and their first ever win at this historic regatta for the Olympic keelboat.

In strong gusty wind conditions with gusts of up to 24 knots on a clear sunny day, at least five Star Class masts snapped in the strong winds, including the day's early leader Bermudan Peter Bromby and Magnus Liljedahl, giving Merriman-Trinter the chance to take control of the regatta, coming out ahead in the 84 boat field to clinch victory.

With Merriman-Trinter taking the win, the end of the day saw Ireland's Peter O'Leary take second place overall with a first place finish on the third day, and Americans Andy Horton and James Lyne taking third.

"We had good speed off the start staying with everyone, and then we were able to hit one tack that edged us out ahead of Andy Horton and got us trailing Bromby. We were right behind him (Bromby) until he broke his mast trying to jib in one of the bigger puffs at the mark," commented Rick Merriman. "Then the wind luckily backed off for us a little and we were able to survive the jib and after that, we just focused on sailing conservatively. We played with a couple good shifts and protected the left, making sure we didn't let anyone get out in front of us. The wind was pretty light for first three quarters of the Bacardi Cup, and then big pressure came down the last part of the day and the boats behind us got this huge puff and surfed all the way up until we finally got the pressure. Luckily, we were able to stay out in front of everyone and take the win."

With wind becoming an increasing concern early in the afternoon, the decision was made to not hold an additional Star Class race to make-up yesterday's cancellation due to windy weather, so the Bacardi Cup was this year settled in five instead of six races.

As the bacardi Cup for the Stars concluded, so the new Bacardi Miami Sailing Week continued with racing for the Melges 20s and Melges 24s as well as Vipers and J/24s.

Jeff Eckland took his boat Star to the top spot overall in the 15 boat Melges 20 field, while Donald Wilson won out in the nine boat Melges 24 class in Convexity. American Skipper Lee Shuckerow won the Viper North American Championship on Saturday, edging out Bermudan Somers Kempe by three points. Meanwhile the J/24 standings were topped by American Trish Walker in Scouts' Pride in the six boat line-up.

Bacardi Cup results