ISAF World Cup Miami, KWRW, VOR—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 27 Jan 2015 So far, the winter of 2014-2015 has been a fairly mild affair for North American sailors, but that buck is about to dramatically stop as the East Coast prepares to get pounded with their first legitimate blizzard in several years. Here in Miami, however, the sun is shining and a nice breeze is stirring the palm trees just before the start of the serious racing at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami (January 24-31), where the world’s greatest One Design sailors have gather for high-level Olympic and Paralympic-class racing.

And while sailors living in points north might be bracing for some serious shoveling in the days to come, here in Miami at least, domestic and international sailors alike are getting seriously psyched for a highly competitive regatta. According to reports, sailors have gathered from 63 countries and will be racing in 10 Olympic classes and 3 Paralympic classes.

'A turnout this large and this competitive confirms that Miami is a preferred venue for Olympic and Paralympic competition,' said Josh Adams, Managing Director of US Olympic Sailing. 'The heat is rising as we come closer to the 2016 Games in Rio, and we’ll see the evidence on the water this week.'

Get the full report from the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami, inside this issue, and stay tuned to the website for breaking news from this prestigious event, as it unfurls.

And speaking of Florida, racing wrapped up last Friday at Key West Race Week (KWRW), where the wind made a return to the racecourse for the final two days of racing, kicking up good seas and offering fantastic racing conditions.

'The wind Gods cooperated [late last week] and gave us great racing,' said Hap Fauth, the owner/skipper of the mini maxi 'Bella Mente'. 'We rose to the occasion and were able to win both races,' Fauth said. 'I thought the whole crew did an impeccable job. We sailed hard in both races.'

While the big hardware always attracts attention, this year it was the now-high-flying GC32 class of foiling catamarans that commanded people’s imaginations. 'The last two days were really fun,' said Flavio Marazzi, skipper of 'Armin Strom Sailing'. 'These are very cool boats and they were absolutely flying. [Friday] was a bit tricky because of the swell. It's hard to find the fine line between pushing and backing off. It is very exciting, but also very dangerous.'

Get the full KWRW report, including results, inside.

Meanwhile, in offshore sailing circles, anticipation is swelling to epic proportions in Sanya, China, as the Chinese-flagged Dongfeng Race Team leads the pack of six in leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race. At the time of this writing, Dongfeng Race Team was just 107 miles away from making race history as the first Chinese-flagged team to win a leg of this prestigious offshore event. Best yet for the team’s ambitions, they were enjoying a 44-mile lead over second-placed Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, and an additional 13 miles over third-placed Team Alvimedica.

'Our life on a flat boat had now been replaced by a banging, slamming home at a constant angle of 30 degrees,' wrote Jack Bouttell, Dongfeng’s Onboard Reporter, in a recent report. 'It was now a lot different onboard, shirts and shorts were now wet weather gear, we had to adopt a bit of a spider monkey technique to get around the boat and going to the bathroom became an extreme sport but at least we had solid wind now and good speed on the other boats.'

Stay tuned to the website as Dongfeng fights to make VOR history.

Also inside, get the full report from the double-handed Barcelona World Race, and get the latest news from the classic 18-footers and the upcoming St. Maarten Heineken Regatta (March 5-8).

May the four winds blow you safely home,