Photos: BMSW/Cory Silken

Mendelblatt and Fatih come from behind

Star's Bacardi Cup and Sailing Week concludes in Miami

Saturday March 9th 2013, Author: Jan Harley, Location: United States

Five one-design fleets, awash with competitors representing over a dozen nations, concluded six days of racing as the 2013 Bacardi Miami Sailing Week presented by EFG Bank wrapped up today.

With points tight among the top contenders in each class, the big story of the regatta was the win of the 86th Bacardi Cup by the Florida team of Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih. Having started their series on Monday by picking up the max number of points for an over early start, the duo worked their way back up the standings to end the penultimate day of the series in second overall.

"We started [the series] not in the best way, but we turned it around,” said Mendelblatt, who previously won the Bacardi Cup in 2005. “It was a disappointing start and it was my fault for not having a good first race. After that we've been very consistent with low scores. We won the last two races and everything went our way. Winning the Cup again means a lot to me; it's really great because winning any big Star regatta is not easy at all! I am very happy to have had Brian with me. He is a great crew and wanted to have his name on the Tito Bacardi trophy. The Bacardi Cup is a great event and now, with the addition of all the other classes, it's even more satisfying."

Mendelblatt and Fatih, who represented the USA in the Star class at the 2012 Olympics, won the single race contested by the 56 Star teams on the final day of the series to move to the top of the standings with 26 points. Lars Grael and Mario Lagoa (BRA), who had been atop the overall standings throughout the week, took second overall with 30 points after placing seventh in the race. Defending champion Xavier Rohart (FRA) ended the series tied on points with Grael after finishing the race in fourth place to take third in the overall standings.

The only change for Diego Negri and Frithjof Kleen (ITA) or 2003 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Augie Diaz (Miami, Fla.) and Arnis Baltins, was in the point totals as both retained their positions in the top-five with, respectively, 33 and 41 points.

The 44-boat Audi Melges 20 class saw a different winner – Michael Kiss, John Taylor and Robert Hughes – in each of the three races sailed to complete their series. Starting the final day fifth overall, Kiss, the defending class champion, went on to post finishes of 3-2-1 which propelled him to the top of the standings with 22 points. Italy's Alessandro Rombelli also moved up four spots in the standings with finishes of 7-3-9 for 33 points. James Wilson with 37 points, Richard Davies with 42 and Russell Lucas with 43, complete the top-five.

In the 18-boat Melges 24 class, Italy's Riccardo Simoneschi won two of the three races sailed to claim the class title with 16 points.

"We’re happy for the win here in Miami,” said Simoneschi. “It’s our first race of the year. We really like racing on Biscayne Bay and within the Bacardi Miami Sailing Week program, which is one of the top regattas. I’ve never won in Miami and I am happy to have done it with our new tactician Enrico Fondi who is a world champion. We will definitely be back next year to defend our win.”

Don Wilson, finished 9-1-2 to net 21 points and take second overall, beating California Alan Field on a tie-breaker. Catherine Evans was third overall with 29 points, followed by Alec Cutler with 33.

Three races were also sailed by the Viper 640 fleet, and the two won by Canadian Lee Shuckerow assured him of the class title with 20 points. Phil Lotz won the other race and moved up three spots to second overall in the 18-boat standings with 24 points. Jason Carroll took third with 26 points. The 2012 class champion the UK's Glyn Locke and Pieter Taselaar ended the series tied on 29 points, with Locke winning the standings tie breaker.

The J/70 class made a strong debut in Miami with 20 boats racing. In pole position with no finish worse than third to start the final day of the series, Briane Keane added two wins to his score line to take the inaugural BMSW class win with 13 points.

“Learned a lot in Key West, tried new things here in Miami and things have worked out!,” said Keane. “Our goal was to be in the top-five and we did it. The J/70 class is the most exciting class in 10 years with top sailors; it’s the best fleet in North America right now; winning Miami is a great accomplishment.”

Keane had the largest point cushion – 19 points – of any top finisher in the competing fleets. Peter Duncan, who won one of the day’s races, finished second overall with 32 points, beating Will Welles in a standings tie-breaker. Torquay's finest, Joe Woods with 43 points, and Brian Elliott with 47, rounded out the top-five.

Star results:

Pos Sail no Crew R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 Tot Net
1 USA 8177 Mark Mendelblatt / Brian Fatih 64/OCS 13 3 4 4 1 1 [64] 26
2 BRA 8392 Lars Grael / Marco Lagoa 1 12 1 3 6 32 7 [32] 30
3 FRA 8237 Xavier Rohart / Serge Pulfer 24 6 2 11 1 6 4 [24] 30
4 ITA 8452 Diego Negri / Frithjof Kleen 12 3 9 2 3 11 5 [12] 33
5 USA 8465 M Augie Diaz / Arnis Baltins 3 1 10 22 7 8 12 [22] 41
6 USA 8320 George Szabo / Magnus Liljedahl 4 10 13 15 10 22 3 [22] 55
7 BRA 8390 Alessandro Pascolato / Henry Boening 18 8 6 8 64/BFD 17 2 [64] 59
8 IRL 8473 Peter O'Leary / Rodney Hagebols 2 36 11 1 14 27 6 [36] 61
9 GER 8331 Hubert Merkelbach / Gerrit Bartel 14 11 20 12 2 40 9 [40] 68
10 USA 8195 John MacCausland / Guy Avalon 16 2 23 14 9 21 10 [23] 72
11 USA 8067 Tomas Hornos / Joshua Revkin 22 64/BFD 34 10 5 3 8 [64] 82
12 UKR 8247 GM Vasil Gureev / Vitali Kushnir 29 22 5 64/BFD 8 14 13 [64] 91
13 USA 8362 Peter Vessella / Austin Sperry 30 30 16 5 21 5 17 [30] 94
14 USA 8000 Arthur Anosov / Mark Dolan 5 28 27 9 64/BFD 12 14 [64] 95
15 CAN 8143 M Brian Cramer / Cam Lymburner 9 7 18 7 34 34 24 [34] 99
16 USA 7741 Benjamin Sternberg / Valentin Veytsman 32 15 7 16 16 64/DNS 15 [64] 101
17 ARG 8286 Daniel Della Torre / Edward Morey 21 25 15 13 11 16 33 [33] 101
18 USA 8484 GM Larry Whipple / Phil Trinter 31 5 19 64/DNF 28 10 11 [64] 104
19 USA 8389 Brian Ledbetter / Tyler Bjorn 11 38 17 6 32 19 21 [38] 106
20 ARG 8285 Erich Mones / Diego Peisajovich 37 14 24 23 25 2 26 [37] 114
21 USA 8072 M Doug Smith / Uli Seeberger 15 31 25 64/DNF 15 9 22 [64] 117
22 USA 7462 Dave Watt / Dave Martin 64/OCS 4 22 34 20 4 39 [64] 123
23 ITA 8341 Lucio Boggi / Sergio Lamberdinelhi 35 18 4 21 24 28 32 [35] 127
24 CAN 8466 Stuart Hebb / Mark Strube 64/OCS 9 30 18 12 42 16 [64] 127
25 ARG 8278 Alberto Zanetti / Nicolas Rosas 7 17 12 64/BFD 23 48 29 [64] 136
26 USA 8464 Jack Jennings / Brian Sharp 19 39 29 64/BFD 17 7 27 [64] 138
27 USA 8291 GM William Swigart / Phil Brewster 8 23 37 30 64/BFD 18 30 [64] 146
28 BRA 8459 Admar Gonzaga Neto / Alexandre Freitas 25 27 26 20 18 31 31 [31] 147
29 ITA 8382 Renato Irrera / Manuele La Porta 20 35 21 25 29 45 20 [45] 150
30 BRA 8287 Luiz André Reis / Renato Moura 13 48 8 64/DNF 19 24 41 [64] 153
31 SUI 8479 Jean-Pascal Chatagny / Patrick Ducomhon 45 21 48 64/BFD 13 13 18 [64] 158
32 CAN 8272 Jerry Wendt / Mike Nichol 17 43 28 24 26 23 40 [43] 158
33 CAN 8271 GM Allan Cullen / Phil Toth 34 19 14 64/BFD 39 20 35 [64] 161
34 SUI 7829 Michel Niklaus / Marcus Niklaus 28 20 31 64/DNF 31 33 19 [64] 162
35 SUI 8409 Gautschi Christoph / Dominik Schenk 36 33 33 19 22 39 25 [39] 168
36 USA 8217 M Mike Phinney / Rick Burgess 2/RDG 53 43 32 30 30 36 [53] 173
37 SUI 8329 Daniel Wyss / Urs Joss 6 32 53 29 45 26 64/DNF [64] 191
38 GER 8179 Klaus Meyer / Jörg Müller 33 41 49 31 36 15 38 [49] 194
39 USA 8015 Donald Massey / Isao Boyama 64/OCS 40 50 17 38 37 23 [64] 205
40 USA 8036 GM Jack Rickard / Sam Eadie 46 24 32 37 27 50 42 [50] 208
41 SUI 8133 Urs Infanger / Oleg Chtchetinine 43 26 36 36 43 25 44 [44] 209
42 USA 8312 GM Anthony Herrmann / Chris Nielson 42 16 44 27 42 47 64/DNC [64] 218
43 GER 7865 Stefan Lehnert / Dietmar Hobbie 27 50 47 64/DNF 33 38 28 [64] 223
44 GER 7750 EGM Jens Burmester / Markus Mehlen 40 47 51 33 37 41 37 [51] 235
45 SUI 8482 Lorenz Zimmermann / Nils Hollweg 38 49 42 26 40 46 45 [49] 237
46 USA 7986 M Barbara Beigel-Vosbury / Laura Beigel 26 64/BFD 38 64/DNC 44 44 34 [64] 250
47 USA 8175 James Babel / Scott Benson 64/OCS 34 46 28 47 35 64/DNC [64] 254
48 USA 7629 Ken Woods / Kip Gardner 10 45 45 64/DNF 35 64/DNC 64/DNC [64] 263
49 USA 8112 GM J. Joseph Bainton / Chris Rogers 39 44 35 64/DNF 46 36 64/DNC [64] 264
50 USA 8215 EGM John Chiarella / Bob Carlson 48 52 55 64/DNF 49 29 43 [64] 276
51 GER 8416 Hubert Rauch / Kilian Weise 64/OCS 51 39 35 41 51 64/DNF [64] 281
52 USA 7469 Blaise Gallahue / James Rudser 49 42 56 64/DNF 48 49 47 [64] 291
53 USA 8087 Keith Donald / Kevin Elterman 23 37 40 64/DNF 64/DNC 64/DNC 64/DNC [64] 292
54 USA 8361 Joseph Pro / Nicolaus Pro 44 64/DNC 52 64/DNF 50 43 46 [64] 299
55 USA 7306 Lou Roberts / Brian McSweeney 41 46 54 38 64/DNF 64/DNC 64/DNC [64] 307
56 USA 8084 Robert Teitge / Eric Beckwith 47 29 41 64/BFD 64/DNC 64/DNC 64/DNC [64] 309

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