Miami twice: Patience and Grube aim for double glory in Key Biscayne
by British Sailing Team 17 Jan 2020 03:08 PST
19-25 January 2020
Luke Patience and Chris Grube finish 7th at the Yamaha 470 World Championships, Enoshima, Japan © Junichi Hirai / Bulkhead Magazine Japan
Luke Patience and Chris Grube will look to replicate the form that saw them crowned North American 470 champions when they go into battle in the Miami round of the 2020 World Cup Series.
Patience and Grube, who will represent Great Britain at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics this summer, dominated the North American Championships earlier this month to take the title.
The pair secured victory by winning six of the nine races in a field packed with the world's best 470 sailors including the top three ranked teams in the world - Mat Belcher and Will Ryan from Australia, Spain's Jordi Xammar and Nicolas Rodriguez and Swedes Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom.
Patience and Grube, who narrowly missed out on a podium spot at Rio 2016, said they will aim to continue their winning momentum when World Cup Series Miami starts on Monday.
"Winning the North Americans was a massive boost for us," said Patience, 33, from Rhu, Scotland. "It was windy and we know we have decent speed in the breeze but it was still a real battle with the Aussies for the top spot.
"Six race wins in a nine-race regatta is a pretty rare thing but it was by no means as easy as the results suggest.
"On the first race of day one we capsized downwind and said to ourselves afterwards 'we need to go out and win the next two races'.
"We did that and then won the next two the following day! It was great, and to go out and smash it against a strong field felt really good.
"We're in a good place. We've been training well and it's all going nice and smoothly. Hopefully there's much more to come when we get back into action next week."
Patience and Grube are the only Brits competing in the event, which concludes with medal racing on Saturday January 25.