Sailing World Cup Miami - Matt Sheahan reports plus live TV links

by Matthew Sheahan on 29 Jan 2016 Top yachting writer, Matt Sheahan reports for World sailing TV from Sailing World Cup Miami. See links at bottom of story for live coverage

Who cares about the Sailing World Cup in Miami?

The answer, more than 780 competitors for starters.

Yet of these, less than half will make it to the start line at the Olympic Games with its total fleet size of just 380. So between now and then there's going to be a fair bit of disappointment as Olympic dreams are shattered, leaving Miami to mark the start of some serious pressure.

The Miami leg of the Sailing World Cup is the second of six championships for the 2016 season. The first event was in Melbourne but its position geographically and the timing of the opening regatta just before Christmas meant that many of the international teams didn't show up. Miami is different.

This Olympic classes event is not only expected to be the biggest of the season's circuit, but is the first time that many will line up against those who have already been selected to represent their countries. Whether they were expecting it or not, this will be a wake up call for some who have yet to experience the new pace that the Olympic racing will be played at as Rio looms into view.

Winning a place at National level is one thing, but running with the big dogs can be quite another.
This is an opportunity to see how other teams are sailing their boats, especially in the two new classes, the womens' 49erFX and the mixed crew Nacra 17. When compared to the more established fleets, the learning curve is still steep for many where there are tips, tricks and skills to be taken on board in the heat of the competition.

For others who have yet to be given the nod, Miami is a chance to impress the selectors. And while their futures may not hang completely on this regatta, there will be a plenty of data taken away from Florida at the end of the event by those who will ultimately decide who goes to Rio.

Miami is a big deal for the hosts too. In 2012 the American Olympic team had a disastrous time coming away empty handed from Weymouth.

Among the navel gazing and shuffling of feet that followed afterwards there were some serious questions asked about how and why the entire team was so far off the pace. Miami is the first major opportunity to prove that the nation's sailing team has moved on, learned the lessons and is ready to focus on the podium come Rio.

In among the USA team changes there are some interesting new names coming to the fore such as Caleb Paine in the Finn class who has been stringing together some impressive results in the light and shifty breezes so far. The men's single hander sees a line up of no less than 18 American sailors, but so far the local battle has been between Paine and Zach Railey who has returned to the class six months ago after quitting Olympic sailing after 2012 for a job in the real world.

'I've got a great family that allows me to do it and I've got some really great business partners that allow me to step away from the business,” he said. 'I'd done a lot of other sailing outside of Olympic sailing and I just really missed Olympic sailing. I missed the training and the grind that goes along with it. And I had a couple of really good friends that decided they were going to come back also, so maybe a little bit of peer pressure also.”

But the elephant in the room, (even though he is absent), was the issue of Brit Finn king Giles Scott. Like Ainslie before him, his appearance in the fleet usually forces everyone else to re-calibrate their expectations. Time will tell on that one later in the season.

If we're talking comebacks though, Laser veteran and general sailing legend Robert Scheidt has demonstrated how to not let a poor start ruin your regatta. Having kicked off the event with some seriously big scores in the 98 boat fleet, he nailed three straight second places on Wednesday.

Rio may be seven months away but as one of Brazil's sailing heroes, he knows there are plenty of eyes on him already.
The Laser Radial fleet is also a whopper entry but here it's the familiar names of Marit Bouwmeester, Evi van Acker and 2012 Gold medallist Lijia Xu who are slipping away from the rest of the fleet for a private battle at the front.

In such a strict one design boat mental games are important where the final pecking order can be influenced by grinding down your competition over months rather than simply the days in one regatta. So Miami matters here too.

And then there's the weather.

As usual it's quite tricky to get those that are more familiar with a venue to talk about what we can expect this summer in Brazil. Why would they? Weather intelligence is as important as that of boat speed. But what seems likely is that Rio will be a venue of variable conditions with the added complication of tide on the courses outside.

An Olympic venue with a broad mix of weather helps to make the lead up events all the more important when it comes to coping with whatever is thrown at them. After the wild conditions of the closing day in Qingdao in 2008, along with a wide variety in Weymouth in 2012, there are few taking anything for granted on the weather front.

So who cares about Miami?

Everyone who's here and plenty more to boot.

Live sailing will be available from 11:00 EST on Saturday.

I’ll be in the pit lane with a microphone and a camera man supplementing a wide range of angles on and off the water. You can watch on:
USA
ESPN3 - http://espn.go.com/…/in…/_/id/2754788/2016-world-sailing-cup
Rest of the World
URL - https://youtu.be/_V2YQYar0IU