Mom's watch Star Regattas from Heaven

by Lynn Fitzpatrick on 30 Jan 2008 k Merriman and his mom must have had a very special relationship. Kathy rooted for her son through his entire sailing career, including the recent US Olympic Trials in the men’s keelboat event. She must be in heaven and teaching all of the angels about Star sailing because Rick and crew, Brian Sharp, started the regatta with a bullet and had a fourth place finish in Monday’s second race to trail the regatta leaders, Marazzi/ de Maria (SUI), by one point going into the second day of racing.

During Tuesday’s first race of US Sailing’s Rolex Miami OCR, Merriman/Sharp (USA) committed to the right early and crossed the fleet one third of the way up the first beat. They sailed most of the beat starboard tack and only needed to take a short hitch onto port to lead the fleet around the first mark, down the run and up much of the second beat. Eivind Melleby and Petter Moreland Pedersen (NOR) snuck out in front of them in a 10 degree left shift up at the top of the second beat.

After three races Merriman/Sharp has sole possession of the lead in the regatta and mom, who passed away on Sunday, is smiling down on her son.

As the breeze came on and veered further right, Merriman/Sharp had the help of all of the angels who may have been a little confused during Tuesday’s first race. For the second time in the regatta, Merriman/Sharp took the gun as they crossed the finish line. All of our thoughts will be with the Merriman's on Saturday during services for Kathy which will be held in St. Petersburg, FL.

Never far behind Merriman/Sharp throughout the day were the Norwegians. Melleby/Pedersen posted a 5th in the second race and are sitting in second place four points ahead of Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams (NZL), who have a total of 18 points. The teams at the top were able to hit some 10- 15 degree shifts that weren’t always righties. The wind started out at 115 degrees and went as far right as 170 degrees as the sea breeze filled throughout the day. Afonso Domingos and Bernado Santos(POR) had a fabulous day ( they scored a 5, 4)that would have been all that much better had they been able to keep their well established first place position in a race that was abandoned early in the day as the wind tried to settle in.

Alphabet scores plagued a lot of teams from both fleets, and positions changed more dramatically on some of the runs than they did on the beats. Today’s yellow fleet, Freddy Loof and Anders Ekstrom (SWE) proved to be the most consistent and posted a 3, 2 for the day. Mark Reynolds and Steve Erickson were successful at passing boats and despite a ZFP in the first race, only added 15 points to their overall score so that they have a total of 24 points and are sitting in fifth place for the regatta. Moving up in the rankings after posting an OCS on Monday are Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki (POL). They played the middle well and have to be very pleased with their 3, 6 for the day.

Results are preliminary and pending requests for redress.

1. Merriman/Sharp (USA) 8
2. Melleby/Pedersen (NOR) 14
3. Pepper/Williams (NZL) 18
4. Marazzi/De Maria (SUI) 20
5. Reynolds/Erickson (USA) 24
6. Domingos/Santos (POR) 26
7. Lovrovic/Mikulicic (CRO) 29
8. Spitzhauer/Nehammer (AUT) 32
9. Loof/Ekstrom (SWE) 33
10. Szabo/Peters (USA) 41