2010 will mark another stepping-stone with the creation of Bacardi Miami Sailing Week (BMSW). The event will be a six-day experience that will gather additional National and International sailing classes together in a fun-filled week of regattas, awards ceremonies, parties, and cultural exhibits. The racing begins on Monday, March 8, 2010 with events scheduled daily through Saturday, March 13, 2010. The 83rd running of the Bacardi Cup and its Star Class will be the feature event of the weeklong regattas. More one-design classes have been invited to join the activities, and the Melges 20, Melges 24, J24 and the Viper 640 classes have been confirmed to compete in BMSW in conjunction with their 2010 North American Championship. Event registration is now open.

The prestigious Coral Reef Yacht Club will continue to be the Organizing Authority for the Star Class and will coordinate on-water activities in collaboration with Biscayne Bay Yacht Club and Coconut Grove Sailing Club. The U.S. Sailing Center and Shake-A-Leg will also support the event. Regattas will be held on three different courses approximately two miles out on Biscayne Bay. Miami Sailing Week is a Studiomilano creation and Bacardi is the event title sponsor.

“We couldn’t be more pleased to be able to launch a new event and be able to be working with Bacardi. It is an honor for us to feature the 83rd Bacardi Cup as the Miami Sailing Week main event and have Bacardi as our title sponsor” comments President of Studiomilano Gabriele Pedone. “The Bacardi Cup has a long rich heritage in the world of sailing and we are honored to be granted the opportunity to work alongside Bacardi, Coral Reef Yacht Club and the entire Coconut Grove waterfront. The overall plan of Bacardi Miami Sailing Week is to preserve the great heritage of this historic regatta and allowing other sailors to be part of a new Miami tradition.”

Bacardi Miami Sailing Week will in fact offer sailors from a variety of different one-design classes the chance to compete in various regattas, all of which will be sponsored by Bacardi. An exciting weeklong string of competitions will kick off Miami Sailing Week, March 8th, 2010, with the Bacardi Cup serving as the capstone event, closing the festivities on Saturday, March 13th with the award presentation at Peacock Park.

More information on the 83rd Bacardi Cup and Miami Sailing Week is available at the website.

About Studiomilano:
Studiomilano is a full service marketing and management firm, founded in August 2002, representing some of the leading luxury retailers and events in the world. Services range from business and project management to event development and coordination, and all aspects in between. For more information on Studiomilano, visit their website.

About Bacardi Rums:
In 1862, in Santiago de Cuba, Bacardi revolutionized the spirits industry when founder Don Facundo Bacardi began producing his remarkable light-bodied, smooth rum Bacardi, the world’s favorite premium rum brand and the world’s most awarded premium rum. Today, Bacardi Rum is produced in Puerto Rico, following the production legacy set forth by Don Facundo – crafted in a five-step distillation process, aged in American white oak barrels, and filtered five times for unparalleled quality and smoothness.

About Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.:
Bacardi U.S.A., Inc. is the United States import, sales and marketing arm of one of the world’s leading spirits and wine producers. The company boasts a portfolio of some of the most recognized and top-selling spirits brands in the United States including Bacardi rum, the world’s favorite and best-selling premium rum, as well as the world’s most awarded premium rum; Grey Goose^® vodka, the world-leader in super-premium vodka; Dewar’s^® Blended Scotch Whisky, the number-one selling blended Scotch whisky in the United States; Bombay Sapphire^® gin, the top-valued premium gin in the world; Cazadores^® blue agave tequila, the number-one premium tequila in the world; Martini^® vermouth, the world-leader in vermouth; and other leading and emerging brands.

More videos are available online at the Official YouTube Channel for the Audi Melges 20.

1.) Benedetto Giallongo
2.) Luca Domenici
3.) Alessandro Franzi
4.) Alessandro Molla
5.) Stefano Di Properzio
6.) Renato Vallivero
7.) Ugo Capolino
8.) Marco Morina
9.) Lauro Bonora
10.) Andrea Pisaneschi
11.) Stefano Ferri

If you are interested, racing is scheduled from April 3-5. Please provide your intention to race prior to February 28, 2010. This will assist the fleet to better organize and coordinate logistics.

For more information, contact European Fleet Secretary Niccolo Bianchi

As published by Campbell Sailing

The February/March calendar filled up quicker than I anticipated after two weeks overseas and a week at Miami OCR in January. This past weekend I went back to Miami to sail with some Minnesota A-Scow sailors in the second of the Audi Melges 20 series held in Miami this winter. The weather pattern didn’t leave us with a ton of breeze, but just enough to get a nice five race regatta in with 14 new boats on the line. The event was the first regatta in the boat for me as well as skipper Joel Ronning, so the learning curve was steep, but the boats were still very fun to sail.

The keels on the 20 are similarly skinny as the Melges 24 or 32. It really makes for interesting sailing when compared to the Star. The Star has a lot of momentum and tracks very well, where the high aspect keels on the 20, 24, and 32 go sideways often, especially when down-speed. Having attachment on the foils is paramount in any racing sailboat, but it was especially the case in the 20 this weekend. We managed to have great starts relative the rest of the fleet in large part because we hardly ever furled the jib in the pre-starts. The common play for the Melges 24 is to get up to the line on your final approach and furl your jib to hold position. The majority of the Melges 20 fleet employed the same tactic, but regretted it as soon as they tried to go jib-out and accelerate. The boats that carried speed through the entire pre-start were often punching out after the gun. Compounding their problems, the boats with bad starts would then have to do a downspeed tack to clear their air. The high aspect jib and flat mains, while fast once up to speed, really don’t add a lot of power to the M20’s setup making any downspeed maneuver extremely difficult. Tacking through 100+ degrees didn’t make things any easier.

The big conclusion from the weekend is that in many ways, the light-weight, high-aspect, modern Melges 20 should be handled much the same as the heavy, low-aspect, venerable Star in light air. Momentum and therefore flow attachment on the foils is king. Making maneuvers should be well thought out and practiced in a long, slow, deliberate turn for best success. I can’t wait to race the new boats in 15-20 knots.

Tomorrow I’m headed to California for a speaking event at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, then I’m home for a few days before heading back to Miami for the Acura Miami Race Week on the Melges 32 Ninkasi immediately followed by Bacardi Sailing Week in the Starboat.

Several OCS, including Ward and Ronning…

For the finish…

Wynsma
Kiss
Naidoo
Ecklund
Dold
Hilgard
Holzman

Wynsma – with what appeared to be a bad start, went left for a clear lane, the crosses the entire fleet out front.