World Cup Series - US sailors begin racing on home waters in Miami

by Will Ricketson on 25 Jan 2017 Sailing can often be as much of a battle against the weather as it is a contest between athletes, and the 450 top sailors assembled on Miami’s Biscayne Bay for World Cup Series Miami, Presented by Sunbrella (January 22-29, 2017) were quickly reminded of this on the first day of racing. With the wind direction often fluctuating across 25 degrees during races, and strength ranging from seven - fourteen knots throughout the day, consistency in race results was hard to come by.

In the Men’s 49er, U.S. teams enjoyed a strong first day. Fred Strammer (Nokomis, Fla.) and Trevor Burd (Marblehead, Mass.), both experienced competitors in the high-performance skiff class, found themselves in third overall after three races. World Cup Series Miami 2017 is their first event together as a team, and their solid results on Tuesday were encouraging.

“We are happy with how our first day of racing went, and how we got stronger as the day went on,” said Strammer, who has been on the international racing circuit since 2012 and is a past winner of World Cup Series Miami. “I think I was a bit nervous at first, since it was my first 49er race in about a year, since the world championship in Clearwater (Florida). But it came together well.” Burd added that starting and upwind speed were their biggest strengths on day one. “These were tough (weather) conditions to stay consistent, so we’re glad to move forward with solid scores,” said Burd. “Downwind it was a bit hard to link one area of (wind) pressure with the next, and we lost some points. We’ll need to improve on that tomorrow.”

In addition to Strammer and Burd, other American 49er athletes flashed some speed on Tuesday, with Andrew Mollerus (Rye, N.Y.) and Matthew Mollerus (Rye, N.Y.) in sixth overall, and Judge Ryan (San Diego, Calif.) and Hans Henken (Coronado, Calif.), who came close to Rio 2016 Olympic Team selection last year, in 10th overall.

Another US Sailing Team highlight came in the Finn class, where Floridian Luke Muller (Ft. Pierce, Fla.) stayed consistent with scores of eleven, three on the day and ended up in fifth overall. “It was a decent day,” said Muller, who is a student at Stanford University and was the 2013 U.S. Laser National Champion. “I focused on staying patient upwind, and getting into a groove early on the downwinds.” Muller was a training partner for Rio 2016 bronze medalist Caleb Paine (San Diego, Calif.) in 2016, and is being guided in Miami by five-time Olympic medal-winning US Sailing Team coach Luther Carpenter (Houston, Texas).

Laser Radial athlete and Olympic gold medalist Anna Tunnicliffe (Pittsburgh, Penn.), who had hoped to make her return to active competition, unfortunately had to withdraw from the event prior to racing due to a technicality related to her un-retirement. More information can be found here.

Four other American teams finished day one inside the top 10 in their classes. Women’s 470 newcomers Atlantic Brugman (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Nora Brugman (Palo Alto, Calif.) are in seventh, closely followed by Alison Knoles (Grosse Ile, Mich.) and Audrey Franchett (Minneapolis, Minn.) in 10th. The Women’s 470 teams are being helped this week by Rio 2016 coach and 2015 U.S. National Coach of the Year Dave Ullman (Newport Beach, Calif.).

In the Nacra 17, Olympian Bora Gulari (Detroit, Mich.), sailing with Anna Weis (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) is in ninth heading into day two, with Gulari’s former Olympic teammate Louisa Chafee (Warwick, R.I.) and helm Riley Gibbs (Long Beach, Calif.), a 2014 Youth World Championship silver medalist, in 10th overall.

What’s ahead

Six days of racing for the ten Olympic classes are scheduled to take place from January 24-29, with medal races scheduled for Saturday, January 28 and Sunday, January 29. Additionally, Sailing World Cup Miami 2017 will feature the debut of the Regatta Park Fan Zone, a new effort to bring as much sailing action as possible to fans watching from shore.

Spectators will get to watch live TV coverage on a large video display, with an experienced commentary team led by U.S. Olympian and 2005 Sailing World Cup Miami champion Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis). The medal race video feed will also be available online on Saturday and Sunday on World Sailing’s Facebook and YouTube Channels.