Report by Paul Cayard:
Saturday: Three races were held today on Biscayne Bay for the Star fleet. The Winter Series fleet has swollen to 40+ boats in anticipation of next weeks Bacardi Cup.

The wind was generally steady in direction and strength with 10-14 knots from East Northeast. This made for a shifty day as the wind was coming over Key Biscayne onto the race course.

I am sailing with Brian Fatih for the first time. Brian is an Olympian from the 2012 Games where he crewed for Mark Mendelblatt USA. Mark and I were team mates in the Athens games where Mark sailed the Laser. Brain and I will race this weekend (the Walker Cup), then the Bacardi Cup next week (88th edition!) and finally the Star World Championship in April, all right here in Miami. Its a good regatta schedule with two important events in our sport.

So Brian and I are trying to build our team work, our vocabulary, and our maneuvers in light of the events we have in front of us.

Today was day 1 and a good start. We struggled with a lack of speed in race one but went very fast down the last run to finish 5th. Peter Vassella and Phil Trinter won this race. We made some rig changes for race 2 and were fast up and downwind. After and excellent start, we won this race after a battle with Torkel Borgstrom of Argentina done the last run to the finish. In race three, we didn’t have such a good start but sailed the shifts well, and with good speed, to finish second. Thomas Lofsted of Sweden won this race.

After three races, Brian and I are leading with 8 points, Vassella/Trinter in second with 11 and Loefstedt in third with 13. Current World Champion Lars Grael is in 4th with 18 and So Cals Jim Buckingham is 5th with 19 points.

Sunday: Two races were held today in a postcard perfect Miami. 10-15 knots from the North and clear blue skies.

The Walker Cup is in honor of Harry Walker, who served the star class as secretary for many years. The 43 competitors were competing to win the Walker Cup but also as a tune up for the 88th Bacardi Cup that stars tomorrow at the same venue.

Brian and I continued our good form by winning race 1 wire to wire. We started at the pin end of the line (left side), with that end being favored 10 degrees, and never took anyone’s transom. With that win, that we had a 8 point lead in the regatta.

The second start was less that perfect as we had a boat directly on our wind as the gun went off. We managed to dig our way out of 20th to finish 6th. The German team of Schmidt/Seeberger sailed very well to take the final race in the now fresh 16 knots of wind.

The final standings were Cayard/Fatih 15, Lars Grael/Goncalves 25 (current World Champions) , Tom Loefstedt of SWE third with 28.

Brain and I were trying a few new things this weekend on the boat. Obviously it went pretty well but we will be continuing to try some things next week during the Bacardi Cup as we prepare for the World Championship in April. It is important to keep trying to raise the bar…up to a point.