Grael day

Brazilian brothers come good at the Star's Bacardi Cup

It’s hot, hot, hot in Miami for the third day of Star racing in the 88th Bacardi Cup and it is the last day the Stars will be alone on the bay, as tomorrow the remaining classes - the J/70, M32, Viper 640 and VX One - will begin racing in the 6th Bacardi Miami Sailing Week presented by EFG Bank.

Today great sailing conditions continued with wind out of the southeast and blowing about 15 knots. After two postponements, caused by the pin boat’s anchor dragging and a major wind shift, a general recall, and another postponement, the Stars finally got a start off at 12:46, with the Black Flag flying.

After a 2.4 mile upwind leg, it was Paul Cayard and Brian Terhaar in first, Alberto Zanetti and Brian Fatih in second, and Torben Grael and Guilherme de Almeida third. The Brazilian brother’s led at the bottom gate with Torben Grael and Guilherme de Almeida in the lead, and Lars Grael and Samuel Gonçlaves in second - followed by Cayard and Terhaar in third. The only change at the second weather mark was Lars Grael swapping places with Cayard, while Torben Grael still led.

Torben Grael and de Almeida held onto their lead to finish first, followed by Lars Grael and Gonçlaves in second with Augie Diaz and Arnis Baltins up to third.

When asked about his brother winning the race, Lars Grael said: “It’s nice to see both brothers on top. Torben had a very good race from the beginning excellent first downwind. So he took the lead with a good gap.”

Torben Grael and Guilherme de Almeida's result today puts them in fourth overall at the 88th Bacardi Cup.

Torben said: “We had a good start and played the middle right; that worked okay. Once around the windward mark, a lot of people jibed, but we went straight and gained a good distance. On the second beat we played the shifts a little bit, it was a little unstable, then it went light at the end of the race, so the last run was a little shaky. I guess we had a little bit of a margin and were able to hold it.”

Lars added: “We were fighting at the top of the fleet since the beginning, rounding the first mark in 4th, finishing downwind in 3rd. Then, we went left believing that it could be better, but it didn’t pay that much. However, we were happy to round the mark still in 3rd. The last downwind there was big competition between ourselves, Augie Diaz, Paul Cayard and at the end we caught some good waves to finish second. So it’s good for the overall standings. Now the gap is closer between the front boats and it is going to be a very good competition until the end.” Their fourth place today leaves them third overall in the 88th Bacardi Cup. 

Augie Diaz and his crew Arnis Baltins lie fifth overall. Diaz commented that they “had great luck. Really on the first weather leg we were pretty fortunate because we didn’t have such a great start and then we caught a couple of nice shifts and went left. Despite the fact that we over stood, again on the left side, it was so favored that on the approach we did really well on the Starboard boats. I had to duck a bunch of boats because there was a wall. That was actually a good thing because when those boats rounded the offset they stayed high and we were able to dive down with no one behind us and get left, which was key; We had a great first downwind leg. We had a pretty good second upwind and we were close to the 2nd and 3rd place boats. At one point we got into second, but we lost Lars coming into the finish.”

Full results