One designs move north

Strong competition expected at the Acura Miami Grand Prix

The stakes will be high when the 2007 Acura Miami Grand Prix starts on March 8. For many of the programs, it signals a resumption of their Key West battles. In addition to renewed rivalries and Miami class championships, the Acura Grand Prix Awards will double the race course drama. The Farr 40 class will also have their National Championship at stake.

The Acura Grand Prix Awards will be presented to the boats with the lowest combined cumulative points for Acura Key West and the Acura Miami Grand Prix. Given the stature of both events and the competitiveness of these four grand prix groups, the Farr 40, Mumm 30, Melges 32 and IRC winners will be special champions.

Vincenzo Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino is the defending Farr 40 2006 Acura Grand Prix Champion. Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghi won this year in Key West handily. An America’s Cup warm-up in Miami? Onorato is a Valencia challenger with Cup winning skipper Russell Coutts as his tactician. Bertarelli is the well known defender and has Brad Butterworth as his Miami tactician.

Given a 10 race series with no discard, anything could happen in the Farr 40 class. In addition to Alinghi and Mascalzone Latino, contenders for the Farr 40 2007 Acura Grand Prix award are Flash Gordon, Twins, Opus One and Nerone.

The IRC big boat class is loaded with possibilities. Dan Meyers’ Farr 60 Numbers recent one point Key West win over Edgar Cato’s Hissar in the IRC 1 class has him tied on points with Magic Glove, Colm Barrington’s Ker 50. Magic Glove also had a one point win in IRC 2. TP52s Samba Pa Ti (John Kilroy) and Windquest (Doug DeVos) were close behind, making them serious contenders for the combined award.

All but one of the 16 high-performance Melges 32s were on the line in Key West. Italian Claudio Recchi’s impressive win last January makes Let’s Roll the boat to beat. Mike Carroll and Marty Kullman’s New Wave (St. Petersburg, FL), Jeff Ecklund’s Star (Ft. Lauderdale, FL), and Simon Williams’ Fresh Guidance (Newport, RI) are close enough in points to be serious contenders for the combined trophy. Williams has World Champion Bill Hardesty on board in Miami.

Watch for a good battle between the Netherlands based Mean Machine (Peter de Ridder) crew and the Santa Barbara, California crew on Groovederci (Deneen Demourkas) . Demourkas is the defending Acura Grand Prix champion and DeRidder is the defending Miami class champ, winning in 2006 by just 2 points. He recently was second in Key West, a tie-breaker away from the class win. The Mumm 30s also race with no discard.

Racing takes place on March 8-11 and these high profile classes will all see plenty of action in this 10-race series just south of Miami’s Government Cut.