Quickly, thanks to the discussion and comments last week I think it is valuable to have a discussion about the subject raised by Mr. Hayes’ comments regarding professionals in the sport of sailing. I look forward to not only reading his book but having more dialogue with him and others on the subject. To read the article go to www.CampbellSailing.com.
Miami provided a week of fabulous sailing this week starting with a smoking windy southerly on Tuesday and another 18-25 knot westerly for practice on Wedneday. Any time you can sail 17.5 knots in any boat you’re having a good day. Ninkasi and the other Melges 32s were on fire this week off South Beach. The four days of the regatta were equally as spectacular albeit a bit cool with 10-20 knot northerlies holding for the entire weekend until we were coming in he harbor today when the breeze finally started it’s regular swing into the east and southeast. We had an up and down day to finish out series with a 3rd and a throwout today to finish 8th overall in the fleet of 23 boats. We had some potential to move up the board but didn’t catch the right breaks in the final race to make that push. We did however find some ellusivd upwind speed that we haven’t had regularly and combined with good starts quite often found ourselves in the hunt. Our downwind speed lacked this event hurting us in the end, but that will be our focus for the season looking toward the worlds in San Francisco in September.
It’s a quick turnaround for me. First race of the Bacardi Cup starts at 1155 tomorrow inside Biscayne Bay so I’ve moved out of the hotel with the team and onto My crew Brad’s couch for the week. I’m really looking forward to be racing the Star again after just more than a month’s recovery from the Worlds in Rio. Lots of tuning numbers to tune out as we will be racing a different chartered boat here in Miami, but with a new jib and a bit of feel on the helm we should be able to make a splash this week.
More to come from Miami this week at www.CampbellSailing.com and results at www.MiamiSailingWeek.com
