Report from the Bacardi Cup by Solo

Venue: Coral Reef Yacht Club, Miami Florida. Also in use is the adjacent Olympic training center. 60-70 Star class boats present for 2002 Bacardi Cup Racing starts on Sunday March 3rd finishes on the 8th.

Today moderate to strong wind from East/Northeast gusting to 25. Forecast calls for continued high winds through Saturday and tapering off as the week progresses.. A few teams went out today to tune and practice, Most saved their equipment. One team snapped their mast 8 feet off of the deck in mid-gibe. This turned out to be more of a slight headache as the North American Star class rep came equipped with 15 masts. ( I bet they go through them as Star masts snap like toothpicks.) Also, Mark Reynolds showed up with a van full of Quantum sails. Apparently, equipment failure is not an excuse not to race.

As the forecasts call for lower wind for most of the week, teams are dieting accordingly. (Good Luck, Solo.)

The Bacardi Cup pulls in the rock stars. Reynolds, Cayard, Team of Ian Percy/Steve Mitchell (British Olympic hopefuls). Solo did mention a female team from the Toronto area (what's with Solo and Canadian chicks?) look strong if not beautiful due to their overall light weight. I guess most women appear beautiful when standing next to a bunch of Star sailors.

They expect to have 60-70 Stars on one line sailing a windward/leeward course.

As the information comes in, I'll post it. If you have any specific questions for regarding the Bacardi Cup, put them on the forum and I'll pass them on.

JohnZ typing it in for Solo

 

A continuing Report from the Bacardi Cup by Solo

Saturday was essentially a practice day. This was welcome as the owner/skipper had only sailed 3 times since the end of last season. Solo had never sailed with this skipper before, so it was important to put some time in and try to synch the styles.

The afternoon was spend speed testing against other boats on 1/2 mile legs. Most teams made it out to fine tune and get their rhythm down.

Sunday:
First day of racing. Of 99 boats registered all but 2 or 3 made it to the starting line. Breeze was from 180 degrees blowing between 12-16. The first 3 starts were general recalls. The line was made up of a R/C boat, with a midpoint pin, then at the far end, a second power boat. Length of line was approximately 3/4 mile. The middle pin seemed to be 4 boat lengths above the line which had caused the general recalls. The black flag was used on the forth start (required to stay under the line inside of 1 minute). While lining up to start Solo's team was brought up over the line inside of 5 seconds to the start. They ducked under and continued upwind. They chose the shore side of the course which seemed fruitful but due to a lack of boat speed and attempting to keep clean air, they found themselves forced into the middle of the course. As the majority of the fleet either went left or right, the middle was left as a vortex of shitty air. They fought their way up to the starboard lay line, made a bee line for the mark where they were met by the R/C and advised that they were over at the start. It's Bacardi time!! See ya at the bar!

One note, on the third run to the finish the wind died for everyone and slowly filled from the rear where the trailing boats made out. This was how Cayard went from 20th to 10th.

Monday:
The cold front made it's way through the Olympic triangle course. Breeze from 330 degrees with 5-10 degree shifts. Wind speed was 18-20 at the line.

Solo's team had a solid start between the pin and second committee boat. They found themselves 2 boat lengths to weather of the McCausland/Delaney team. McCausland's experience paid off and had made gains on Solo's team to the point where they were forced to tack to the right side of the course to protect their air. The shore side was favored as the wind continued to build but chop was remained minimal. They reached the weather mark in the mid 40s. As they approached, they witnessed the first mast snap. A port tacker tried to lee bow another boat but got hit with a gust heeling him enough to find his mast caught in another boat's forestay.

Rounding the mark and bearing off for one hell of a wild ride. Constant fine tuning to keep the beast in check. Looking back at the trailing fleet, it seemed that a back stay popped on one boat and another mast was lost. They rounded the leeward mark cleanly and worked to windward again. This was fairly uneventful. Rounding the weather again, they were met with winds of 22-25 true and chop building. Because the angle of the boat to the waves were not favorable which would mean surfing them, they found themselves in an "eerie" situation. Solo (as crew) found himself straight leg hiking off the leeward side. This was essential to keep the boat from rolling to weather. Looking forward and back, boats were rounding up, snapping masts, digging jib poles, total carnage. A few boat lengths ahead a driver got hit on the head by the boom which sent him into the water. His crew was able to pick him up and they continued. On the last leg, the temperature dropped to the mid 60s which made for a long last leg. Solo's team finished 35th for the race. Only 57 boats finished out of 99 registered. All 15 masts which were brought to the race by the N.A. Rep were sold.

Tuesday
Racers made it to the starting line to be met with 25 true. The R/C witnessed a few wild reaches and called off racing for the day.

 

Wednesday:

Since on Monday we missed one race the RC decided to run two races on Tuesday, which was supposed to be a great help to many people who lost their rigs or simply struggled in the brutal conditions of Monday. On the morning of Wednsday the cold front was supposed to have been past Miami but we were lucky enought to be graced by another rain front coming through. Having frozen
the day before from just bubbing around on the starting line, the code dress of the day was to put everything on, two layers of fleece, waterproof jacket and pants and rain hat. So I was fine with the cold, but the wind was still at 17-20 knots, the seas lumpy and we were packing it light with just three
bottles of water and no food. The weather was this week's usual rain and wind, pouring rain all day.

First race, Race 3, was Course 4, WLWL, at 70 degree wind angle. We started reasonably well, next to Mark Pickel/Dave Giles, and, impressivly, held on to the lane and speed with them for the first two-three minutes off the line. Unfortunately when the lanes cleared up Pickel changed his gears and pulled away forward while we had another boat rolling over us and forced us to tack on port. We stayed with the plan of avoiding the middle of the course and started playing the right side. In a perfrect world it was probably a mistake but in a world of 60+ boats on the course it worked ok. Our runs were great, we sailed fast and deep on our Mader, a Star known for its downwind qualities.
A good story from that race was when Davidson and his crew in a Mader sailed behind Szabo/Sperry in their Folly and Szabo warned them from drinving him up high. Davidson said "cool" and sailed under Szabo and then came up high on the other end. Sperry was not a happy camper as you might think. The runs were not as wild as on Monday but I still had to move all around the cockpit trimming the boat fore-aft to keep the bow up, and jumping between high and low sides when we would sail by the lee in the puffs. Fun stuff. In the second beat we got into a nice groove (I shut my mouth and let the skipper just drive) and we made some spots on that beat by picking clean lanes in the middle right of the course. All in all, a good race with 46th finish.

We had to wait for the next race for about 40 minutes which made people very cold. The wind picked up and the Course was 0, Olympic triangle. Great, looking forward to two reaching legs. We decided to start at the boat end of the line and our decision was confirmed by Cayard/Trinter starting just to
lee of us. We were about 4 seconds late to the line and ended up starting in the second row. This forced us to tack on port (thank God no gybing to port) and we cleared the lane very quickly. This were a brain jam occurred on board. The whole fleet was going left but we had the whole right side opened to ourselves and another boat, my old skipper known for cutting corners. While waiting for that elusive header to take us left to the fleet we found ourselves sailing our own race, which is never a good thing. By the end of the beat I was praying that by some stupid luck we would end up in only
bottom fifth of the fleet, but, as you may have guessed it, a big lefty clicked on the left side of the course and we rounded the first mark dead last. Adrenolin pouring out of my ears I took that baby around the reaching legs by the backstays, ripping on them on the wave crests and hiking as hard as I could, with a goal of passing ten boat on the reaching legs. We passed four on the first reacher, gybed around the mark and went for the second one, where the wind was well aft to pop the pole and ride the puffs by the lee, hicking aft and to leeward. One boat got swamped and we gained that, and we rode high and fast on two other boats. The beat was tough with no visibility and persistent shift on the course but we still rounded about seventh or eighth from the tail end. The run was wild but we kept the boat in check, only swamping it twice, thanks to my slow moves to the back of the boat. The last beat was a total cluster, though, where we could only see ten or twenty boats
at a time, with the leading pack completely disappearing in the rain. We lost two boats on that beat and finished fifth from the end, I think 62 for the race, a race that was essentially screwed in the first five minutes. Hey, shit happens. The physical pain was not as great as the pain from the heartburn that you get when you eat fried food for three days (no decent Asian food down here) and then spend a cold day getting rain from above, saltwater up your nose and hang upside down with your head below you stomach. oy.

We came out 59th overall after that day, which was still withing my goal of finishing above 50.

Thursday:

The sky is again overcast and the forecast is calling for thunderstorms. The RC postponed the harbor start for about 40 minutes and then took us about five miles out into the bay. The only race was Course 3, WLWLW, a rather long and tiring course but the breeze was promising at first. The course was set for 90 degrees but we saw from 85 to 105 before the start. After the first general recall the RC popped the black flag up and we tried to start conservative yet clear in the middle of the line. We had a decent start and started working left side of the course. We had Cayard/Trinter in front of
us for a while and Brun/Dorgan above us. Brun tacked to port and Cayard followed soon. We went as well, just trying not to bang the corner which turned out to be a mistake in that leg. The lefty came in promptly and people made out by going far left. We still felt good about our position when we saw
Percy/Mitchell coming to the weather mark three boats in front of us. On the light air run we stayed closer to the right side of the run and worked the boat pretty hard. The not so new trend in the class for the crews on the runs is to stand on deck holding to the mast instead of sitting in front of it. This gives crew great mobility and ability to see the course. You work the boat like a surf board, leaning out on your toes and stepping fore-aft to control the balance and induce lee helm on the surfs. This hard work allowed us to pass Percy/Mitchell and stay close to McCausland/Delaney boat, which
was another Mader. On the beat we worked very well in the light stuff, picking good patches of breeze around the course and working wicked track to the weather mark. STill mid pack although PErcy/Mitchell find their way in front. McCausland/Delaney passed us on one tack but we returned the favor on another and eneded ahead of them at the weather mark. The run was great again, we
held off all the boats behind us and passed at least four or five other boats, three of which simply did not like the way we were catching up on them and gybed on a header. On the end of the beat to the finish the left corner worked out again and that, combined with few extra tacks we had to do in the
end of the beat to clear our lane allowed Lowe/Higgins and an Italian boat beat us to the line. McCausland/Delaney had a better approach to the line, heavily favored for committee boat, and they also ended up passing us in the last minute of the race. Percy/Mitchell were about five boats ahead, must have been a tough race for them. So we were pretty happy with this race, where we fninshed 42nd, but on coming to the docks we found out that we blackflagged! Don't know how it happenned, Carlo Loos was above us and also got nailed, so our alibi for the possible protest was ruined and we left it at that. As far as I am concerned we finished 42nd, while passing many fast boats. Oh, by the way, the downpour and lightning thunderstorm on the way back to the dock was just lovely. Thank God for friends who take you home, make you dinner and let you drink a lot of booze before using their computer to type this report.

Tomorrow is the last day and the big party.

Solo

Friday

Friday turned out to be a gorgeous day for racing, typical Bacardi weather, with sun, heat and 10-16 knots of wind. We did not race however and after spending the afternoon by the pool I ended up running the hoist to get the boats out of the water quickly to pack up.

Reynolds/Liljendahl won it again! By the results it seems that when were 3 points in front the Spanish Olympic team on Thursday night, they chose to cover that team during the race, finishing 7 or 8 spots in front and getting the big prize.

The 75th Bacardi dinner was traditionally spectacular event setup at Bacardi headquarters downtown Miami. The food was great and booze fantastic and free, which resulted in many nearly tearful confessions from drunken sailors. Imagine that apart from Bacardi mixed drink tables they had a separate table for their beer brand (forget the name) and for their Dewars scotch brand! Tito Bacardi presented the trophies together with Ding Schoonmaker (who sailed the last Bacardi Cup in Havana, Cuba, in 1952) to the top three of each race and to the top four overall. The crowd was very happy to see Cayard/Trinter
back in the game, having earned a second spot, and the roar and applause for Reynolds/Liljendahl lasted for several minutes. It is really easy to spend five hours partying with such setting and all the big boys and girls partied till we realized at around midnight that all the tables and chairs are gone, as were the cute and friendly bartenders with the booze. That did not seem
to bother Cayard who spend all night drinking whatever he was drinking out of his silver Bacardi Cup.

There is always next year for me, there were some new and young faces from our district at this regatta, and let's just hope that in the very near future we see the Bacardi Cup sailed in Havana again. The term "party" would not really describe that event.

Over and out.

S.