Bacardi – Day 1

Nassau, Bahamas, March 9, 2017. Two races completed. Tomorrow is the last day of the Bacardi (3rd and last race), followed by 1 race for the Dudley Gamblin.

(Photo courtesy of Karin Goodfellow)

1. CUB Raul Miguel Diaz Herrera & Carlos Esposito Rodriguez, 2

2. BAH Robert Dunkley & Eldon Goodfellow, 5

3. BAH Jimmie Lowe & Tyler McSweeney, 7

Report by Nikki Bruno

Sixteen boats representing five countries are here at the Bacardi/Gamblin Regatta hosted at the Royal Nassau Sailing Club in the beautiful Bahamas.

While the typical big breeze was around the days leading up to the regatta, it faded into a perfect medium-breeze for the first day. Due to the spring tide, the usual race schedule that involves a morning race, break for lunch, then an afternoon race had to be modified because it was too shallow to even put the boats in the water!

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Around 1pm the tide had finally come up enough for launch. It was a bit of a squeeze as we only had floating docks to work with – Hurricane Matthew had blown all the permanent docks to bits this past fall.

Two five-leg W races were sailed, each about an hour long.

Race 1 started off with a steady 10kts of breeze, the shallow Montagu bay was white capping just a bit. The eastern breeze sent waves straight into the bay, making for some amazing downwind surfing conditions! Skipper Raul Herrera of Cuba led the way, followed by Bahamian skippers Jimmie Lowe and Robert Dunkley in second and third place.

By Race 2 the breeze had calmed down to about 7kts, but there was still plenty of chop to manage. Finishing in first again was Raul, followed by Robert, and in third place was Steve Tautz of Colorado.

In the evening, generous libations were provided by Bacardi, and the club fed us Bahamian-style finger foods, including their famous conch fritters.

 

Place	Sail Number	Sailor(s)	Boat Name/Club	R1	R2	Total	Net
1	CUB 29518	Raul Miguel Diaz Herrera Carlos Esposito Rodriguez	Havana	1	1	2	2
2	BAH 30360	Robert Dunkley Eldon/Goodfellow	RNSC	3	2	5	5
3	BAH 28811	Jimmie Lowe Tyler McSweeney	RNSC	2	5	7	7
4	USA 30568	Steve Tautz Peggy Tautz	Bow Mar YC	4	3	7	7
5	BAH 29410	Spencer Cartwright Lori Lowe	RNSC	5	4	9	9
6	BAH 29210	Paul DeSouza Cochise Burrows	RNSC	6	6	12	12
7	BAH 29616	Fernando DeCardenas Hope	RNSC	7	11	18	18
8	FIN 30833	Hanna Leena Lehtinen Juha Lehtinen	Finland	8	12	20	20
9	USA 31188	Mike Slouka Robin Jackson	Bow Mar YC	11	9	20	20
10	USA 31157	Martin Bebb Nikki Bruno	Oklahoma/Dallas Fleet #1	14	7	21	21
11	USA 31244	Eliot Payson Alice Bush	Bow Mar YC	9	13	22	22
12	BAH 30511	Max Wassitsch Peter Bruce Wassitsch	RNSC	15	8	23	23
13	CAN 30111	Christopher Hains Barb	Canada	13	10	23	23
14	USA 29323	Robin Baker Dave Baker	Miami	10	14	24	24
15	USA 29963	Phillips Smith	USA	12	15	27	27
16	USA 28450	Steve Kurtz Hoyes	Bow Mar YC	16	16	32	32