Star World Champions win 2007 Bacardi Cup

by Janet Maizner on 10 Mar 2007
New Zealand’s Hamish Pepper, the current Star Class World and North American champion, sailing this week with his crew and coach David Giles of Australia, won the 2007 Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta Friday on the waters of Biscayne Bay, near Miami.

Despite the duo’s seventh place in today’s final race of the six-day series, Pepper and Giles held on to their first place overall to win the coveted Trofeo Bacardi in one of the most prestigious Star Class events in the world.

Sweden’s Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom, reigning Rolex Miami Olympic Class Regatta champions, finished third today and climbed to second in the overall standings.

German sailors Matthias Miller and crew Manuel Voigt won Friday’s Day Six race, just ahead of their countrymen Marc Pickel and crew Ingo Borkowski who took second place honors. With their Day Six victory, Miller and Voigt edge out Bermuda’s Peter Bromby, a two-time Bacardi Cup champion, and crew Bill McNiven for sixth place in the final standings, while Pickel and Borkowski finish the regatta in fifth overall.

Poland’s Mateusz Kusznierewicz, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist in the Finn Class, and crew Dominik Zycki finished 11th Friday and drop to third in the final standings, while Australia’s Iain Murray and crew Andrew Palfrey finished fourth Friday and remain in fourth overall.

Kusznierewicz and Zycki failed to pick up an early shift and fell outside the top 10 at the first windward mark; they would not recover. With the Polish duo out of contention, Pepper and Giles followed Loof and Ekstrom closely on the right side of the course, tacking and jibing almost simultaneously on every subsequent leg.

'We were stuck in the middle,' said Kusznierewicz. 'Pepper and Loof got a shift from the right and the other guys got it from the left. It was tough out for us out there today.'

Loof and Ekstrom led at the third mark, followed closely by Pepper and Giles, although both boats would be overtaken by a late charge from the fleet. At the fourth and final mark, five boats separated the overall leaders, but Loof and Ekstrom simply could not put any additional boats between them.

'We couldn’t shake him,' said Loof. '[Pepper] was just counting boats and staying close to us.'

'When [Loof] and I were in the lead, I thought it would be easier, but all of a sudden, the pressure came off and we were swallowed up by a bunch of other guys,' said Pepper. 'That’s when it started getting tricky. It was a tough, long race. To win a Bacardi Cup is special. [Giles] has seen so many other people drink from that cup; now it’s our turn,' he added.

The prestigious Trofeo Bacardi was presented to the winners dockside where skipper, crew and Jose 'Tito' Argamasilla Bacardi, the retired former vice president of public relations at Bacardi U.S.A., Inc., drank Bacardi Rum from the Cup in an annual tradition that dates back to the first Bacardi Cup Regatta sailed in Cuba in the 1927.

David Giles was presented with the 'Tito Bacardi' Cup, a special cup that was created last year to honor the crew of the winning team.

Final overall results

1	NZL 8187	PEPPER Hamish	Giles David	2	3	1	16	2	7	15
2	SWE 8256	Loof Fredrik	Ekstrom Anders	8	2	2	18	3	3	18
3	POL 8170	Kusznierewicz Mateusz	Zycki Dominik	4	9	7	2	1	11	23
4	AUS 7836	Murray Ian	Palfrey Andrew	6	5	6	8	76.0 [OCS]	4	29
5	GER 8213	Pickel Marc	BORKOWSKI Ingo	10	48	8	10	6	2	36
6	GER 7991	Miller Matthias	Voight Manuel	7	7	17	11	11	1	37
7	BER 8044	Bromby Peter	McNiven Bill	5	11	10	5	76.0 [OCS]	10	41
8	NOR 8186	Melleby Eivind	Pedersen Petter Morland	12	14	20	4	10	76.0 [OCS]	60
9	ITA 8281	Modena Luca	Marchesini Michele	11	18	31	6	19	6	60
10	SUI 8232	Dannesboe Henrik	HEINONEN Eki	20	46	5	14	5	18	62
11	USA 8268	DANE John	Sperry Austin	9	41	30	1	9	15	64
12	USA 8195	Maccausland John	Schofield Bob	76.0 [BFD]	6	21	7	16	17	67
13	USA 8273	Szabo George	Liljedahl Magnus	15	15	4	19	15	21	68
14	AUT 8226	Spitzauer Hans	Nehammer Christian	13.8 [13.8, RDG]	17	11	15	12	30	68.8
15	SUI 8138	Marazzi Flavio	Hofer Donat	14	4	27	76.0 [DNS]	7	20	72
16	POR 8145	Domingos Afonso	Santos Bernardo	76.0 [BFD]	28	3	9	17	16	73
17	USA 8250	Macdonald Andy	Fatih Brian	17	69	15	12	24	8	76
18	USA 8129	Reynolds Mark	Haenel Hal	24	21	24	3	76.0 [DNF]	5	77
19	GER 7971	Stanjek Robert	Kleen Frithjof	3	76.0 [DNF]	34	30	4	12	83
20	CRO 7955	Lovrovic Marin	Mikulicic Sinisa	19	12	13	28	20	23	87
21	USA 8132	Brun Vince	Brophy Doug	31	13	28	22	14	13	90
22	NED 8263	Jorissen Sander	Veldhuizen Erik	33	27	46	13	13	14	100
23	USA 8286	Anderson Karl	Morey Edward	35	16	26	20	18	26	106
24	ARG 7907	MAC GOWAN FABIAN	ENGELHARD Federico	28	34	9	24	22	28	111
25	NZL 8061	Lord Rohan	Addy Miles	22	35	14	25	26	24	111
26	SWE 8238	Lofstedt Tom	Larsson Martin	27	10	47	17	38	22	114
27	USA 8043	Kohlhas Jock	Scott Larry	23	1	44	32	51	19	119
28	CAN 8143	Cramer Brian	Bjorn Tyler	29	40	22	21	25	27	124
29	HUN 8166	Tenke Tibor	Bendicsek Jozsef	25	31	25	53	8	39	128
30	USA 8095	Weissenberger Gunti	Wagner Will	32	33	18	26	76.0 [DNF]	31	140
31	UKR 8157	Anosov Arthur	Dolan Mark	34	19	76.0 [DNS]	27	31	32	143
32	SUI 8009	Gautschi Christoph	Konig Jurg	13	57	55	23	23	35	149
33	UKR 8247	GUREYEV Vasyl	KOROTKOV Volodymyr	16	61	38	43	32	29	158
34	CHI 8181	Zuazola Rodrigo	Fuentes Marcos	18	63	39	34	76.0 [DNF]	9	163
35	USA 8072	Smith Doug	Moore Mike	76.0 [BFD]	22	37	50	29	36	174
36	GBR 7601	Hicks Michael	Hicks Patrick	41	51	16	45	33	46	181
37	USA 8222	Merriman Rick	Munroe Eric	76.0 [BFD]	44	12	31	21	76.0 [DNS]	184
38	HUN 7900	Forintos Robert	Komm Andras	40	30	52	35	35	44	184
39	SUI 8085	Zimmermann Lorenz	Furer Andreas	26	25	42	60	47	47	187
40	GER 7545	Hampe Alex	Conrads Chris	38	67	29	36	43	45	191
41	ITA 8277	Irrera Renato	Cristaldini Corrado	21	32	45	61	46	49	193
42	GER 7816	Girr Fritz	HASCHE Marko	76.0 [BFD]	20	48	57	44	25	194
43	USA 8111	Brethorst Rick	Nielson Chris	39	29	41	55	37	48	194
44	USA 8231	Museler Chris	Lidecis Erik	43	8	64	46	76.0 [OCS]	34	195
45	ESP 8212	Bermudez Roberto	Arrarte Pablo	76.0 [BFD]	23	35	49	45.8 [DNF,AVG]	45.8 [AVG]	198.6
46	USA 8059	Hovey Bear	Dayton Lee	30	39	23	33	76.0 [OCS]	76.0 [DNF]	201
47	CAN 6756	Hendershot Will	Vranderick Alain	37	38	33	58	53	42	203
48	USA 7866	Manderson John	Semler Matt	36	47	76.0 [OCS]	41	40	41	205
49	USA 8215	Allen Bill	Hatfield Bruce	42	62	32	59	27	55	215
50	USA 8245	Zambella Joe	Davidson Jeremy	76.0 [BFD]	55	40	42	28	57	222
51	GER 7863	Meyer Klaus	Struve Dirk	76.0 [BFD]	43	62	40	41	38	224
52	GER 7865	Lehnert Stefan	Menning Peter	45	49	53	44	36	52	226
53	IRL 8028	O'Connell Maurice	Cooke Ben	1	56	19	76.0 [DNS]	76.0 [DNS]	76.0 [DNS]	228
54	ITA 7227	Lillia Stefano	Canali Cicio	46	54	36	71	39	58	233
55	ITA 8291	Veggetti Andrea	Coppa Franco	76.0 [BFD]	24	76.0 [OCS]	29	30	76.0 [DSQ]	235
56	USA 8128	Culberson Bill	Cruthirds Troy	76.0 [BFD]	26	50	48	76.0 [OCS]	37	237
57	SUI 7645	Wyss Daniel	Stegmeier Beat	76.0 [BFD]	65	54	38	34	51	242
58	USA 7814	Donald Keith	Carlson Michael	49	50	68	54	61	33	247
59	USA 8083	Chiarella John	Carlson Bob	47	42	59	52	55	56	252
60	CHN 7784	Li Hongquan	Wang He	51	68	60	68	42	40	261
61	USA 7370	Emmet Rob	Avellon Guy	76.0 [BFD]	70	49	37	54	54	264
62	USA 81	Bingham Julian	Clark Buddy	76.0 [BFD]	64	56	47	49	53	269
63	ITA 8183	Tamburini Antonio	Ricci Renzo	76.0 [BFD]	36	43	39	76.0 [DNF]	76.0 [OCS]	270
64	USA 7579	Seeling Timothy	Rogers Chris	52	58	65	67	57	43	275
65	USA 8069	Mueller Fritz	Weinstein Bob	76.0 [DNF]	37	76.0 [DSQ]	51	48	65	277
66	USA 8084	Teitge Bob	Koresjka Adam	76.0 [BFD]	59	51	65	52	50	277
67	USA 8000	Walker Harry	Jensen Darin	48	76.0 [DNS]	58	56	56	62	280
68	USA 7934	Von Schwarz Karl	Wharton Rich	44	52	66	70	60	63	285
69	ARG 8239	Pendola Martin	SIMONET ARIEL	76.0 [BFD]	45	76.0 [OCS]	62	45	61	289
70	USA 8067	Oti Jose	May Henry	76.0 [BFD]	53	61	63	58	59	294
71	GER 823	Thomsen Dierk	Thomsen Lars	50	66	67	69	76.0 [DNF]	60	312
72	USA 7970	Hopkins Sam	Pytlak John	53	72	69	72	62	66	322
73	USA 7434	Parks Bill	Anderson Clark	76.0 [DNF]	76.0 [DNS]	63	64	59	64	326
74	GER 8016	Rauch Hubert	Schappeler Ingo	76.0 [DSQ]	71	57	76.0 [OCS,ZFP]	50	76.0 [DNS]	330
75	USA 7567	Buckley Davis	Hardin Chris	76.0 [DNF]	60	76.0 [DNF]	66	76.0 [DNS]	76.0 [DNS]	354