Biscayne Bay ready to host 2018 ISCYRA Western Hemisphere Championship
by Rachele Vitello 11 Apr 2018 23:12 BST
12-15 April 2018
Biscayne Bay Yacht Club ready to host the Star Western Hemisphere Championship 2018 © BBYC
The Western Hemisphere 2018 will official start tomorrow April 12th with the first day of racing, in Miami, Florida.
Organized by Biscayne Bay Yacht Club in conjunction with the ISCYRA, International Star Class Yacht Racing Association, the Western Hemisphere is one of the big five Silver events on the ISCYRA calendar and it will go on until Sunday April 15th with two races per day. It will be the second big event on Star boats held in Miami's Biscayne Bay within a little more than a month's time: on the first week of March on these water Diego Negri and Sergio Lambertenghi won the 91st edition of the Bacardi Cup.
Diego and Sergio won't be here, but the winners of the 2017 Western Hemisphere will. Arthur Asonov with David Caesar (USA) won the event last year in Cleveland, Ohio, on lake Erie, with a four points lead over John MacCausland with Roger Cheer (USA). Both teams will be sailing this week trying to replicate last year's success, alongside some of the best Star sailors. Paul Cayard (USA) will be on the start line with Arthur 'Tutu' Lopes (BRA), local Augie Diaz (USA) will also participate with crew Bruno Prada (BRA), so will do former ISCYRA President Lars Grael with his loyal Samuel Goncalves (BRA) and SSL Finals's champion Frithjof Kleen (GER) will race with the American skipper Jack Jennings.
The long Brazilian Star sailing tradition will be well represented, after the United States it's the most represented country at the Western Hemisphere 2018, with 5 teams and the above mentioned crews. Among them Finn sailor Jorge Zarif, who's just arrived from Trofeo Princesa Sofia in Palma de Mallorca where he finished in fifth position. Jorge is not new to Star class, he raced on a Star for the first time in Nassau, Bahamas, at the SSL Finals in 2014, with experienced crew Henry 'Maguila' Boening where they finished 4th. He will race with Guilherme De Almeida here and we expect great things from the youngest sailor of the fleet.
The weather this week looks very 'Biscayne Bay', with westerly breeze between 10 and 18 knots, it might change towards the weekend, with a southerly breeze coming in on Saturday going up to over 20 knots on Sunday, when the Trophy and 750 SSL Points will be appointed to the winner Tomorrow's first warning signal will be at 11am after the 9am Opening Ceremony.
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