2006 Bacardi Cup Regatta at Biscayne Bay, Miami - Day 2

Father and son-in-law tandem of John Dane and Austin Sperry take the lead after day two of the 79th Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta © Alex Gort

Father and Son-in-Law tandem of John Dane and Austin Sperry take overall lead

The father and son-in-law tandem of John Dane and crew Austin Sperry, sailing out of Gulfport, Mississippi, won Monday’s second race on the waters of Biscayne Bay. With a third place finish in Sunday’s first race, today’s victory assures them the overall lead going into the third of six races in the regatta.

Dane and Sperry trailed Marc Pickel and crew Ingo Borkowski of Germany by about a boat length following the third and final mark of the double windward-leeward course. Both teams were several boat lengths ahead of their nearest competitors heading towards the finish line.

Dane elected to jibe starboard towards the finish in the hope of securing the better angle, while Pickel chose the more consistent, albeit conservative, approach of remaining on course. The move proved decisive for Dane and Sperry as they edged Pickel and Borkowski by less than a foot, according to race committee chairman Craig Prandini.

“We ran a pretty conservative race and listened to our coach, Larry Souter, who gave us a lot of very good weather input. He’s the reason we stayed competitive today,” said Dane, 54, a 2008 Olympic hopeful in the Star Class with crew Sperry, 27. “We sailed side by side with Pickel all the way down the final run, then jibed away towards the starboard end of the finish line because we thought that would be the better angle; we figured we didn’t have anything to lose since we had some space between us and the other boats. Pickel just didn’t jibe and got the slower angle,” Dane added.

San Diego’s Mark Reynolds, the two-time Olympic gold medalist who sails this week with Swedish crew Christian Finnsgard, finished fifth Monday and retains second place overall following his day one victory. Pickel and Borkowski rise to third overall, after finishing ninth on day one, while Bermuda’s Peter Bromby and crew Bill McNiven, sailing in their first regatta together in more than 20 years, move to fourth overall with finishes in fourth and seventh place on day one and day two respectively.

2005 Star World Champions Xavier Rohart and crew Pascal Rambeau of France finished third on consistent gains throughout the race and currently rank seventh overall.

Reynolds said he had a nice start but couldn’t figure out what the wind was doing. He said he was trying to keep up with Andy Horton and crew Brad Nichol who charged from the start and aggressively sailed the course leading all the way. Horton/Nichol did cross the finish line first only to find out they were black flagged at the start line along with six other boats.

Update from Team O'Connell & Peel:

Yesterday was the first race of Bacardi Cup. Our plan was to work the middle right of the course which we did in glorious clear air after a cracking mid-line start, too clear as it turned out!

Half way up the 1st beat, it was all looking very rosy. Then a 30 degree left hand wind shift came in with an increase in pressure which dropped us right back. After rounding the top mark 33rd, we eventually finished 28th. We worked hard, enjoyed the race immensely, never gave up and most importantly for us, we were fast downwind. We took nine boats on the first downwind leg, only to lose a few on the next upwind. Treble Olympic medallist and twice world champion Mark Reynolds from San Diego won the race.

After the race, Craig Mahoney (ISA team sports psychologist who is helping us this week) came alongside with the RIB. Prof jumped out of the Star on to the RIB with the tow rope and managed to injure his middle/lower back on the side. He lay down on the RIB the whole way in and found it difficult to walk afterwards.

Prof has been to hospital, had his back x-rayed and has been given some large painkillers. So a decision will be made tomorrow whether he can continue the event or not. Obviously, we could not sail today as the valium has kicked in a big way!

Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Results after Day 2: